Welcome to my world
by Vincent Luccion
Summary: Naruto is forced to switch schools because of a family secret. But what is he to do when this same secret puts him, and his new friend in danger? The same friend, who shows Naruto that not all secrets are a curse after all.
1. The Boy with the Red Tattoos

Bang, bang, bang!

"Naruto get up!" I heard through the door. I could hear my mother's footsteps heading down the stairs. She was loud in the morning, and it was only irritating when she woke me up which was quite often.

I tried to pull the covers over my head to block out the world; I didn't want to get up today at all. I don't know how long it had been that I sat there under those covers. After a while, I heard the footsteps coming back up the stairs.

I could only guess that is was my mother before I heard another loud bang on the door. "Wake up now Naruto! You're already late for school," she called through the door.

I groaned before pulling the blanket from over my head to see my alarm clock. It wasn't where it normally was. It was actually across the room, on the floor, unplugged, with the face hanging on by the electrical wires. "Dammit," I said before yanking the blanket off me and jumping out of bed, grabbing clothes as I ran around the room. I then ran to the bathroom for a shower.

Ten minutes in the shower, two to get dressed, one to grab breakfast, another one to get into my car, and out of the driveway. I was in a hurry because today was my first day at this school. I was already worried enough with the fact that I had to move. Going to a new school however just wasn't my cup of tea for this type of morning.

By the way, my name is Naruto Uzumaki. This was the beginning of a school year, well, two months in really. And I already had to move to a new school. The reason for that? Well, it's a secret. A big one that I me and my family had to live with. The only people who knew were my mother, my grandfather, and my brother Menma.

:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:

I could see the sign to the school, and wanted nothing more than to turn around and head home and for my bed once again. My house was a good thirty-minute drive from the school, so it was probably already almost second period, so I would somewhat have an excuse to go back home.

When I pulled into the parking lot of the school, I got out of my car, and locked it behind me. Heading toward the front office, or at least what looked like the office, I bit my lip. A new school meant new people, new bullies, new friends, and new favorite teachers.

I walked into the office, with a raven haired woman who sat at the front desk. She looked up, and smiled. "I'm going to guess that you're new here," she spoke softly.

"Am I that obvious?" I ask with a slight chuckle. I knew it was obvious because of two reasons. One, I'm late. Two, this lady has never met me before.

"Well, that's the teacher's parking lot." She said, pointing out the door behind me. Turning around, I could see my car sitting between two cars, one a BMW that was beautiful all together, the other, a silver Audi R8. My favorite car ever. I hadn't even noticed when I had pulled next to it. Okay, maybe there were three reasons it was obvious for me being new.

"Oh, I'll go move it, where is the student parking lot?" I ask, heading for the door.

"Don't worry about it, and get in here!" Someone yelled from the doorway behind the black haired woman. It made her and I both jump.

The raven woman flicked her head toward the doorway as if to say 'go on in'. And with reluctant compliance, I went in.

A woman that was sitting in a large chair met me; I could tell by the scowl on her face, that she was the principal of the school. She had blonde hair that was tied up in two ponytails. And wore a gray tank top that looked like her boobs were about to pop out of, and a green jacket so that she had her shoulders covered.

"My name is Tsunade, and I'm the principal, my word here is law. Don't like it, and I'll have you transferred out of here faster than you can blink." She said with strict authority. But something behind those words seemed false.

"My name is Naruto Uzumaki, and I don't think I'll be transferred out that quickly." I said, almost going against what she had just said to me. I wanted to come off as someone who wouldn't easily be pushed around.

She nodded, as if understanding, typed something into the computer, and printed a paper. Handing it to me, "This is your schedule, learn it, live it." She said with something menacing in her voice. "Shizune!" She yelled, and the raven-haired woman came running in.

"Yes ma'am?" She voiced in a hurry.

"Take Mr. Uzumaki here to his second period." She said and turned to her computer again.

"Most certainly my lady." Shizune said, and motioned for me to follow her out the door.

And without question I did just that. I didn't pay much attention to what she way saying, I was thinking about how well this would play out. I challenged the principal's rule in less than ten minutes of being in a new school, and I was stuck in gym second class of the day. If there was one thing that I hated more than having gym class, it was the boy's locker room.

It was what I dreaded most about going to school. Despite being a senior, I never took gym class, and I needed the credit to graduate. That is what I hated, the school system made people take classes that they didn't even like, so that they could have their lives 'open up' later on when they get out of school. But they never taught you anything you'd actually need to use later on, like how to buy a house, or how to file taxes.

I found it all to be bullshit honestly, but I've been able to keep my grades up for the longest time. The only reason I even had to transfer was because of one incident that I got caught in. That was the only time it had ever happened to me, and I wasn't going to let it ruin my life.

When Shizune held the door open for me, I walked in without question, and allowed her to get back to her job. There were boys everywhere that were half naked. Some were dressed in only their underwear, and others were actually fully dressed.

I headed over to the office, I peeked in, and shook my head. Our gym teacher looked stupid. He wore green spandex, and orange ankle weights. He had a bowl cut of black hair. He looked either crazy, or stupid, or maybe a mixture of both. I guessed the latter.

"Excuse me, sir?" I asked, walking in.

The man jumped up with a dorky looking smile on his face, "Well good morning! What ca—who are you?" He asked, cutting himself off midsentence.

"My name is Naruto Uzumaki, I just transferred here." I say. He seemed to be pleased with my answer, though he still annoyed me by how he looked. No sense of style.

"Well, I am Might Guy, I am your gym teacher!" He hollered. Almost blowing my eardrum out of my head, I winced.

"Yeah, cool." I said in a melancholy tone, "I need a locker." I added while I shifted my bag on my shoulder.

"Oh, right." Looking through his paperwork, he wrote some numbers down, and handed me a paper. "You're between Kiba, and Shikamaru."

Walking out, I shook my head, as if I know who they are, I ask myself with a slight chuckle. Yeah, Guy was obviously stupid.

Looking at the paper, I read the locker number, and headed that way. A boy was sitting there, dressed in what seemed to be his normal clothes, because he was wearing pants and a jacket. He had his dark brown hair put up in a ponytail that sat on top of his head. He looked up lazily, and nodded to me. Then he went back to looking at his phone.

Another boy was standing by him, talking. His skin was tan, and you could see all of his muscles through the under armor tank top that was hugging his stomach and chest. But the most noticeable thing that showed on him, were those alluring red tattoos. They were strange, captivating even. But there was something about them that seemed so familiar.

He didn't seem to notice me looking at him, which was good. Because at the moment, I don't think I could pull my eyes off of him.

At the moment, I didn't get why I couldn't stop staring at him. He was both intoxicating, and captivating. This was probably the reasoning as to my behavior.

When he'd noticed me, he raised a brow, "You okay kid?" He asked as he got closer, waving his hand in front of my face.

"Huh?" I questioned with a start, I had moved myself into daydreaming right there in front of him, and got lost in my thoughts. "Oh; yeah. Sorry, I just have things on my mind and stopped to think." I tried to play it off.

He laughed and shook his head, "Daydreaming while looking in the direction of a half-naked guy, people would think you're gay." He smirked at me and leaned a little closer, "Are you gay?" He asked in a low whisper to where only him, the boy with the ponytail, and I could hear.

"Kiba stop picking on him." The other boy said, stepping in. "You sound like a homophobic douche."

The boy with the red tattoos laughed at the other's comment, "Ouch, harsh there Shikamaru. Sorry, didn't mean to come off that way!"

"Sorry about him," the other, apparently named Shikamaru, said as he stretched out his hand, "I'm Shikamaru Nara, that's Kiba Inuzuka." He said with a warming smile.

I took his hand and shook it, "Naruto Uzumaki. It's nice to meet you."

Shikamaru was already locking his locker, "You might want to get changed, or you'll be late to get outside." He said as he turned around and headed for the doors. I wondered about him, he told me I'd be late but he wasn't even dressed out for the class.

I didn't say anything toward that, just started putting in the combination to the locker, and pulled it open. There was slight rust on the inside of it, but nothing more. A hook was pushing out of the top so that I could attach my backpack.

After doing so, I unzipped the bag and pulled out the orange gym shorts that were in there. Slipping out of my pants and into the shorts as fast as I could, I searched around in my bag for my shirt, which I couldn't find. I remember having set them out, but I also remember just running past the shirt and shorts and grabbing the shorts. But I don't remember grabbing the shirt to go with it.

Groaning, I started to close my locker when Kiba looked toward me, "You're not changing your shirt?" He asked.

"I guess I forgot it at home. I was in too much of a hurry to grab one." I said with a shrug.

"Well here, I have an extra one, if you want?" The boy with the red tattoos said, looking through his locker.

He pulled out a gray shirt that held a red swirl on it. I didn't complain, or question, that he was giving me a shirt. I just said thanks, and changed as quickly as I could. Shoving my shirt into my locker, I closed it as quickly as I could, and locked it.

The shirt smelled strange. But I figured it was because it wasn't my shirt that I'd notice the smell. It was obviously the smell of the guy who gave it to me. I liked it, it was a strong scent, but it also smelled clean.

Kiba was already almost out the door, so I had to move quickly to keep up with his pace. "What are we doing today?" I asked, mostly because I wasn't one for the physical fitness thing.

"Well, he normally has us start with exercises to get all your muscles warmed up, and then we'll probably be doing the three mile run." Kiba said, without looking back toward me.

"Three miles?" I gawk at the idea, "and we're supposed to be running that in what kind of time frame?" I ask.

"Yeah, why is that a problem for you? And we just need to run it. No time frame." He said with a cocky grin that just seemed so right with his features. "Most people walk it, except for me, Neji, and Lee. Everyone else normally just walks and talks with their friends. Though if you want, I won't run it, and we can talk." He added.

In all honestly, I was happy to hear him say this. He seemed to be nice enough to be a friend. So I didn't hesitate to agree to it, "Yeah, that'd be great!"

"OKAY YOU YOUTHFULL PUPLIS! LET'S START WITH EXCERSISES!" Guy hollered.

"YES SIR!" Someone from the crowd hollered back.

I looked over in the direction of the student, and by gods what I found was a Guy lookalike standing there with his hand raised in a solute. Biting back a laugh, I shook my head in disbelief. The kid had to be Guy's son. There was no other way to explain it.

As we were stretching out, I felt all my limbs pop, all the muscles I haven't used in a long time started to feel sore already. There was no way that I was going to run, for any amount of time for this class, if I couldn't get my muscles working again.

Within ten minutes of doing this, we stopped, and I was as sore as I've ever been. That's when Guy spoke up again, "NOW RUN MY PUPILS RUN!" He hollered out, and the lookalike took off high speed down the track. If I didn't know any better, I'd say that child was on speed or something; maybe he was ADHD.

There were a few people that also started jogging on the track, and one other dark haired boy started off in a jog, but he seemed to be getting faster with each step that he took. I just watched as everyone was running down the track.

"Come on, I don't want to be the last ones done." Kiba had said to me, and we just started walking down the track. "So talk to me, since you're new here, you don't really know anyone do you?" He asked. Of course, that was true, so I didn't deny it.

"No one, other than you now; I came from Leaf Academy." I said, not thinking too much as to what I said.

"Oh, so you're a rich kid than?" I heard him ask with a slight chuckle.

Biting my lip I shook my head, I wasn't considered rich when I went there, I was actually considered poor. "No, I'm not rich. I got in via scholarship. But they took that away and I was kicked out last week." I said with a huff and a shrug of the shoulders.

"Well, why did you get kicked out the school year just started? That's a high up there school. It must have been something serious for that to have happened?" He seemed like he was reading too much into it, and probably judging me on that too. But he would have never guessed the reason, and I was thankful for that.

"Actually, it wasn't that serious." I lied, "Just speculation on their part, and they blew it out of proportion."

"Speculation? May I know about it?"

"I'll tell you some other time. I don't really want to get into it." I said looking out of the corner of my eye at him. "Enough about me, tell me about you." When I told him to talk about himself, I could see his lips curl into a slight smile. As if he wanted to, but what came next kind of surprised me.

"Naw, I want to hear about you. I'll tell you about me afterward."

I was sure that he wanted to talk about himself, he seemed the type. But then again, I was never really a good judge of character when it came to this sort of thing.

Nodding, I sped up my pace a little, so he would have to as well. "Well I guess I could say that I'm the more art kind of student, and that I don't really care for any of this Physical Education stuff." I start, and I can tell that he is already looking for something to say about it. But I continue anyway.

"I live with my mom in a three bedroom house; my dad moved out and got with some woman that I really can't stand. I own the orange Dodge Challenger that's currently sitting in the teacher's parking lot, and I don't think the principal likes me very much here. She threatened to kick me out." I say all of this within a moment of seconds, so I stop to take a breath and to see if he has any input on the matter.

"Wow, all of that in a few seconds, I'm surprised that you can manage to say all of those different things without missing a beat on it." He said. Of course, I wasn't paying much attention as to what I said. I just said things as they came to mind. "I guess it's my turn?" He asked.

"Yeah, I guess so. Just anything that comes to mind I guess?" I said this as more of a question than a demand.

"Well, I live with my mother, and my sister. They're both vets, and I would like to be one too one day. I've been here at this school since freshman year. I'm the star player for our soccer team already, and I am also going to be on the swim team. So I love sports. I don't have a car, so I have to take the bus. And the principle here doesn't like anyone." He said all of this as in copying every subject that I said before hand.

Out of everything that he'd said, I started to enjoy being around him. I may not like sports, but I did find jocks to be attractive.

He then started talking about his family, and funny times that he'd spent with his friends. I just listened throughout the whole time. I said nothing, laughed when I knew he was being funny, and nod when I knew he was looking for a response. He never asked me anything of my life. But with that time that was passing by, we eventually got to the last of our three miles. Stopping, we were both laughing quite a bit about a story he'd told me about when his dog had chased Shikamaru around trying to bite him in the butt.

He seemed to be a good person, and he was fun. I had no problem with being his friend.

Back in the locker room, I opened my locker, and started to remove the shirt that Kiba had given me. That's when I heard him laughing behind me. I stopped and turned around; he was with Shikamaru, and another boy who I didn't know the name of. He had with black hair that looked like a cockatoo.

I couldn't hear what they were saying, but when the dark-haired boy looked my way, I got the feeling he said something about me. I turned back toward the locker, and heard a loud popping sound. I didn't want to pay attention; dropping his shirt on the bench, I switched to my pants real quick, and put my shirt back on. And as quickly as I could, I left the locker room and headed out toward the gym, where we were supposed to meet before they released the class.

I hurried out of the locker rooms so fast, that I hadn't noticed that I'd dropped my schedule. It was only after the bell rang for lunch that I tried to find it, but couldn't. After getting a carton of juice, I backtracked toward the locker room, following every step that I took. When I got into the gym, I saw him.

Kiba was laying down, in the middle of the gym, one leg resting on the other. I could tell that he was waiting for something, or someone. But at the moment, I didn't care. He and his friends were making fun of me, and that just set me off. I went to turn and walk away, but I heard his voice call out toward me.

"Forgot something did you?" He asked. When I turned to face him again, he was sitting up finally, and holding up the schedule that Tsunade had printed out for me.

He had an apologetic smile on his face, as if he knew why I ran out of the locker room so quickly; sighing, I walked toward him and reached out for it. But he pulled it back. Motioning for me to sit down, he smiled a little.

Sipping my juice, I was somewhat reluctant to sit with him. But we were the only ones in the gym. So I guess it wouldn't hurt if I were to sit with him. So with a sigh, I sat down and crossed my legs. Raising a brow, I said nothing as I sipped on the juice that was now empty, just there to make noise.

"I'm sorry." He said flat out.

"For what?" I asked, although I knew what he was apologizing for, I wanted to hear it from him.

"For what Sasuke was saying. He was being an asshole." He said, "He doesn't like new kids, and really doesn't like it when people 'steal' his friends. So he always tries to bully them. He's also a little homophobic, and I think he thinks you're gay."

Nodding, I bit my lip. I was being stupid, and I know that. But I didn't want to apologize, not yet anyway. When he handed over my schedule, I took it easily, and almost sluggish. To be honest, I didn't want to leave the gym right now. Not if he was going to stay in here with me.

"Well, I'm hungry. Wanna go to the café and get something to eat?" He asked, he was smiling like he was when we were out on the track. Raising my juice box, I smiled half-heartedly. I already had gone to get food, but I didn't have enough for really anything to eat. So I didn't want to walk all the way back over there just to watch someone eat.

"Well how about I go get something, and come back here?" He asked, "That way you won't have to move from here, and I'll know right where to find you." He added with his same smile.

"Yeah, that sounds good to me."

"Great, oh, if it's okay I'm going to ask my friends to come over here too? There're quite a few of them though, so I don't know if you want to meet them all in one go?" He asked, seeming to take my feelings into account.

"That's quite alright with me. I don't mind." I said.

He smiled, nodded, and ran out toward the café. That smile, the one that he'd been showing me since I met him. It was intoxicating, captivating, and sexy. All of which were pretty much the same thing, but without each other, there was no way of explaining how it looked. If he'd smiled like that forever, I wouldn't mind who he was friends with, and which of them talked about me behind my back.

It was only moments later where I was regretting even thinking that; when he and his friends walked back into the gym. There he was, at the lead, and then followed Sasuke, Shikamaru, some fat kid, the dorky kid that looks like our gym coach, Neji from gym, a pink haired girl, a blonde haired girl, and girl with two buns on the back of her head.

From the moment that I saw them, I could tell what was going on. The pink haired girl and Sasuke were at least a couple, they were holding hands. Naji and the girl with the buns is a couple, and Shikamaru and the blonde are a couple.

When they all sat down, I just smiled at the people that were with him. They didn't seem too bad, aside from Sasuke, who just seemed to be annoyed by my presence. Though I really didn't seem to care that he thought of me annoying. I found that him being around me was just as annoying. But I didn't care about that. I had my sights on something else.

When they all had sat down, the girl with pink hair smiled toward me before sitting next to me. "Hello, who are you?" She asked with a smile. And I could tell that from her talking to me, Sasuke seemed not too happy about this. But by how they were acting with one another, she didn't pay attention to what it was he wanted. "I'm Sakura by the way." She added.

"I'm Naruto, nice to meet you." I said with a smile.

Smiling, she crossed her legs and pulled out some food. The people were busy talking with one another, not really noticing me. I didn't say anything about this however because I didn't want to be a bother to anyone. As I watched the people talking, I observed some of the things that they were doing.

Sakura kept glancing over at Sasuke, and smiling, even though he was not looking toward her in the least. Lee, the boy that looked like the coach, seemed to be doing the same for Sakura. It was as if everyone in the group was in love with another. Except Shikamaru, and Choji, the fat guy, who I learned not to call fat or else you'd get hurt.

But it wasn't only those two who were looking at one another, Ino, the blonde girl, was doing the same to Sasuke. And Neji and Tenten, the girl with the buns, were doing it to one another.

This is about the time that I noticed something. Something that almost anyone would want to hide. It amused me quite a bit. But I said nothing, although I couldn't help but let out a chuckle.

"What's so funny?" Asked Kiba; I forgot the reason I had agreed to meet this group of friends in the first place, until I heard his voice.

"It's just…" I start, but I can't figure out what to say about what I've noticed. "Everyone here is just so interesting in their own way." I finish.

"Oh? And in what way am I interesting?" I heard Ino ask.

I was always blunt when it came to telling people the truth. If they asked for the truth anyway, I never really enjoyed lying to people. So I made it my habit to tell everyone the truth. But I knew that what I've learned so far was going to get me in trouble with everyone here. So I decided to bite my tongue, in a sense.

"Well come on, how am I interesting?" She pressured again.

"You're to the point, and seem like you like to argue with people." I say, knowing that I could tell that was how she was just by how she acted. I didn't dare go near the subject of whom she liked; for fear of getting punched.

She smiled happily, knowing that I hit the nail right on the head.

I opened my mouth again to speak, but the bell rang just as the words were coming out of my mouth. So the lunch break was over, and my day was to continue on to whatever class I had next, which was physics.

Getting up, I grabbed my things and headed off toward the doors that lead out to the courtyard, and the main building. It was when I heard a voice that I stopped and turned. Seeing that it was Kiba, I smiled again, but the smile faded once I saw that Sasuke was following him. Of course that guy would be following him too.

"Yeah?" I asked, now generally curious as to what the reason for him calling my name was.

"We have physics together." He said. I could tell by the pinch in Sasuke's nose that he was not too happy about that. But he wasn't able to do anything about it, and neither was I. But since that he did that, I smiled widely.

"Oh, is Sasuke in there too?" I asked, leaning in forward so that I could see his scowl past Kiba.

"No, he has government this period." Kiba announced.

"Thanks for announcing my classes." The bird headed boy said before he stalked off angrily.

"What crawled up his ass and died?" I asked.

Kiba laughed with a howl. It was funny to hear because it sounded kind of like a dog. But that wasn't something that would bother me either way.

Throughout the day, I was mostly having fun. Kiba seemed to be in my gym, physics, and English classes. And my art class on the next day. Though four out of eight classes wasn't the best thing ever. Here we had four classes a day, and the next day were the other four.

After English class it was the end of the day. I hadn't really planned on doing anything that day so when Kiba had asked me to hang out with him, I didn't refuse. He had also told me that he didn't want to go home just yet and that he didn't have soccer practice today, so he had the afternoon off. Of course I didn't mind it; I enjoyed hanging out with him from the first time I had talked to him.

"Would you like to go to my house? I have games, and food, and stuff. If you want to play anything or do something." I said.

"Sounds good to me." He noted with a great big smile. That smile, it was just the thing I wanted to see, and I wanted to see it from that day forward. I wanted to see it the next morning too.

* * *

><p><strong><em>Alright! Here we go! I am so sorry for the delay in this, but I hope everything turns out to everyone's liking! This chapter, not much has changed between it and the first version! The most noticeable change however, might have been the mention of Menma. Obviously if you read the first one, you're going to know who Menma is, and what his role is around here. But don't worry, he is still here! Somewhere…<em>**

**_Thank you all for being such awesome readers. I hope I can make you proud with this remake of the first story I'd written on here!_**


	2. Super Glue and Numbers

**CHAPTER 2: SUPER GLUE AND NUMBERS**

That first day I had met Kiba, we played video games, went swimming in the back yard, and ate ramen (my favorite food.) Of course, this isn't how I had planned my day going from when I woke up, but I wasn't complaining.

My mom had gotten home around five o'clock from work that day, and that's about the time we were swimming. I know that she knew I had someone over, because she was smiling all cheery like when she walked out to greet me. She never greeted me when she got home. She always went to sleep.

When my mom saw Kiba, she acted surprised that I had someone over, and she asked for his name. After introducing himself, my mom smiled happily at him, and asked if we were hungry. This was about the time that we ate the ramen; and was about the time that I knew what my mom was thinking.

At about seven o'clock, I drove Kiba back to his house. He lived in a house that was about the same size as my own; though by the look of it I knew that he didn't have a pool there.

When he got out, he said thanks for the day, and said that we should hang out again soon. Of course I had agreed, and of course I would do it any day that he wanted. As long as he was willing to take his shirt off again. But I wouldn't tell him that.

When I got back home, my mom was standing in the middle of the living room, with her hands crossed, her hip out, and a smirk on her face. "So is he your boyfriend?" She asked in her most serious tone.

"No." I said simply, and rather bluntly.

"Awe!" She said with a disappointed look on her face. "You need to make him your boyfriend, he's hot!" She said.

I couldn't believe this, my mom was saying that the friend I just made today should be my boyfriend, and she said he was hot. The hell!

"I wish you were something like normal parents, and not be all over my friends." I said as I started heading toward my room.

"Shut up fucker, I'm allowed to do whatever I want!" She hollered at me, which at this point I turn to face her in disbelief.

"The hell bitch? Don't call me a fucker, I'm your son!"

She laughed at me, "And you're gay, so I think that works out perfectly. And watch your fucking language!" She screamed the last part as I ascended the stairs that lead to my room.

This is my mom, fun, joking, and accepting of me. Just like any kid would want their mom to be, I guess. I shook my head, still not believing that she called me that, and headed up to my room.

Closing my door, I just chuckled to myself before getting on the computer. Checking Facebook, and a few other things, I didn't notice that my phone was going off on the side of my bed until is started blaring _5 o'clock_. But by that time, I didn't get to pick it up before it went to voicemail.

It was one of my friends from my old school. Temari, the sister of one of my ex-boyfriends. She was always nice to me and actually cared about how things were going; even after her brother and I broke up. That's just the way that she was. She was also an artist, so she knew that I wasn't into any of the physical sports or anything. Shaking my head, I didn't attempt calling her back, because I knew that she would either text me, or call me once again. She always did.

And right on cue, she called back once more. Answering this time, I could already tell that I was starting to smile, "Hello?" I asked.

"Hey Naruto, how are things at the new school?" She asked.

I grinned, even though I knew that she wasn't able to see it. "Things are quite well. People have been nice to me since I got there, and I already made a great friend." I said. "My mom seems to like him anyway."

"Oh my god, your mom didn't even like Gaara. Who is this boy, is he gay? Are you two dating?" She asked. I laughed at all of her questions, and her explanation of the fact that my mom didn't like my ex Gaara.

"No, we're not dating. His name is Kiba. He's really cool, and he's into sports and everything; the 'main' jock of the school actually. So I doubt that he's gay." I say, knowing that she'll bug me more if I said that I didn't know if he was or not, "He's just too jock-ish. He can't be gay." I add.

I could hear the disappointment in her voice. But I didn't say anything of the fact that I liked him or not. Or how I saw him shirtless, or that he came over. She would have dug as deep as she could with that one.

"Oh, well what sports does he play?" She asked.

"He's the star player of the soccer team, and he's going to be on the swim team." I say, not really thinking too much about what she could pull from this due to my homework. I was still on the computer, looking through my grades that have been transferred.

"Oh the swim team huh? Have you seen him swim yet?" She asked, hinting at the idea of him in a speedo.

My face went a little red at the thought. I've seen him shirtless already, but he wasn't that revealed to the point that you could see everything. He did wear one of my swim suits, so I got to see him in his boxers when he changed. Though, I could do that in the locker room anyway.

"No I haven't seen him swim yet." I lied, "And I don't think I need to. He's a cool guy. I think he'd be a good friend. I don't really want to ruin this on the first week of knowing him." I said the word friend with emphasis, trying to keep her ideas at bay.

"Awe, so then you don't want him as a boyfriend?" She asked.

"He's already got eyes on him." I said this bluntly, and not thinking about it. But when I said it, I bit my lip.

"I'll kick that girl's ass if she thinks she can steal this guy from you!" She hollered into the phone. I had to pull the phone away from my ear so that she wouldn't blow my eardrum to shreds.

"Yeah, I don't think Kiba likes him like that anyway." Again I said, not thinking. I was too focused on my homework to even notice that I said the word '_him_' instead of 'her.'

"There's a boy that likes him there?" She asked, now a little amused by the thought, "Well if this Kiba does turn out to be a cock-lover, then he'd surely be yours." She said. She didn't mean anything by the insult, because her brother was too, she just said it because that's how she is.

"Hey, I got to go, I need to finish my homework before dinner, and talking on the phone doesn't help. Sorry." I tell her before hanging up without a response.

Getting through the science and English was easy. We didn't have any homework in gym, and I missed the first period of the day, so I didn't get any from that class either. When I finished it all however, it was later at night; around nine o'clock.

Walking down the stairs I could hear the TV on in the next room. When I rounded the corner though, I didn't find anybody there. So I headed for the kitchen, where again I found nobody. However there was a note on the table that had my name at the top of it.

In my mother's cursive hand writing, I read, "_Naruto, I was called back to the office. I have ordered pizza for you, and it should be there around 9:00. I'll be back home around __midnight.__ You had better not be awake when I get back. Love mom._" And as if right on que, there was a knock at the door, and the pizza was here. Grabbing the money, I walked to the door, paid the man, and kicked back at the kitchen table.

Next morning, my phone alarm went off, and this time, I woke up to it without throwing it across the room and breaking it. So when I got out of bed, I went through my normal routine. Shower, dry, dress, food, leave.

Today though, I wore a black dress shirt, and a purple tie, with a black vest on top of it, with just normal dark blue jeans, and converse. To be honest, when I looked in the mirror, I found that I looked rather hot today, but I wasn't going to be cocky and try to look over myself as if I were a piece of meat.

Within the next half hour, I made it to the school just about twenty minutes before the bell was to ring. I hadn't found Kiba at all in the morning, so when the bell rang, I was somewhat dreading the idea of going to class, but I still had to.

Walking into the class, I didn't remember any of the faces, except one. It was a pre-calculus class. And the only person I had recognized was Sasuke, the one person that didn't like me at this school. I said nothing as I sat across the room from him, and pulled out my books.

I tried my best to ignore the fact that Sasuke was in my class, but it became difficult when he was the only one answering Ms. Anko when she asked the class what the answers were. I knew quickly, that he was the smartest kid in the class. He got every answer right, and sometimes even corrected Ms. Anko.

When the bell rang, I didn't rush to get out of the class. I simply packed up and headed out. When I got out of the door however, there Sasuke was, leaning against a wall of the hall, waiting. At first I didn't think he was waiting for me, but when he pushed off the wall when I walked passed, I knew he wanted something.

"I'll make this quick," He started, and seemed like he was waiting for a response, or thinking about what he was going to say. "Leave him alone, and don't try to hang out with any of us." So that's what he wanted. He wanted to get me out of the picture. He had walked forward, and tried to lose me a little behind him.

"Why should I? I understand that you want Kiba all to yourself, but it's obvious that he's not that into you; isn't it?" I asked loud enough to even draw the attention of a few passersby. But it got Sasuke's attention. He froze in his place, almost like he'd been petrified by my words.

Turning back to me, he moved closer as if trying to keep the conversation between us, "What makes you think that I'd possibly ever want to do that? I'm not gay, I just don't want some fag to be all over my friends when they won't like it." He hissed; he seemed to be pissed at my words. I could tell that if he were a dog, he'd have bitten me right there and gave me rabies just because.

"He doesn't know does he? I mean, he already told me he doesn't mind hanging out with fags, but I think if it turns out that one of his good friends is one, and that they have the biggest crush on him, he'd be a little disgusted don't you think?" I asked; I heard a few onlookers snicker at my question while others were looking from Sasuke to me, as if waiting for a fight to break out.

At first, there was a glimmer of fear in his eyes, as if I had found out the biggest secret of his entire being. Maybe I could use it against him again in a little bit. But when his eyes settled, he chuckled. His composure set back to normal, and he was standing rather cockily. He seemed to be trying to set himself at ease.

"What's with that? You actually think that I'm in the same boat as you? You think that I like to suck dick around here? Don't make me laugh." He answered with a wicked smirk.

"Then why are you getting so defensive all of a sudden? I saw the way you were looking at him out of the corner of your eye whenever you thought someone wasn't looking yesterday. You just can't stop looking at him, can you?" I shot back.

We were having an argument in the middle of a hallway, where everyone could see, and that wasn't even the best part. The best part was that Sasuke was losing.

"If you boys are done having your pissing contest, how about we get to class before the bell rings huh?" The voice that rang out made both Sasuke and I jump almost right out of our skins. Both of our heads turned to see Kiba standing against a wall with his bag hanging behind him and his arms crossed in front of his chest.

"Sasuke, get outta here and get to class. You too, Naruto. I don't want to see either of you thinking it's smart to go out and piss one another off." He said before walking over and grabbing me by the arm.

"K-kiba…" I looked down toward the floor, feeling grief befall me. I didn't understand what compelled me to be such a dick to the other boy, but there was just something about him that seemed to piss me off.

"Seriously Naruto? I don't want to see you two getting in fights. I know that you're new here, and I know that he's a dick a lot of the time, but he's actually a pretty cool guy." He told me as he dragged me along to the art room. I had forgotten that I had class with him this period.

"Tch, he started it." I mumbled to myself as I went along with his pull. I didn't know what was so special about the kid. I could probably take him in a fight, but then again I didn't want to actually fight him. I was afraid of what might happen.

"I don't care who started it." Kiba scolded in an aggravated tone. "What were you two even arguing about?" He asked with a look to me. It was more of a look of concern than anger.

"It's…nothing important." I answered without intent to budge on my answer. I didn't want it to slip that I already liked him. It was only the second day that I'd known him.

As we emerged through the threshold of the art room's door, we saw that most of the seats had been taken by students. But toward the back of the class, we both caught sight of a hair color that was impossible to miss. Pink.

Sakura was sitting with her back toward us. Dragging me along, Kiba headed right for her, with me dreading the situation. I was going to be stuck with Kiba, the guy I liked, and Sakura, the girlfriend of the guy who hated me. So this is how it was going to be, huh? Just great!

As Kiba dragged me, he called out to Sakura before waving as she turned to see us. She smiled brightly and waved back as she stood up to meet us halfway. "Hey there Kiba, Naruto. How are you guys this morning?" She asked.

My guess was that she didn't hear about the confrontation that her boyfriend and I had this morning. "Oh I'm doing well. Naruto here on the other hand thought it was a bright idea to try and pick a fight with Sasuke though." Kiba announced to the girl.

Well there goes that boat, sailing down the harbor. I shook my head and pulled my hand from Kiba's, trying to get away from the situation. "Naruto, be careful with Sasuke. He's got a short fuse and he likes to fight." Sakura said as a warning. But that was all.

I turned to her with a raised brow. "You're not mad that I got into with your boyfriend?" I asked.

Giggling, she sat down on the stool she once occupied before our coming into the room, "Why would I be mad about something like that? You two weren't fighting over me were you?" She asked, to which I shook my head, "Then there's nothing that I need to worry about. If you manage to beat up Sasuke, then he deserved it I'm sure. He can be quite the asshole after all." She noted before turning to her table and picking up her pencil.

Now I was confused, so she didn't care if we got into a fight? She didn't even care if I beat him up? Well this was just strange. I wanted so badly to just announce that the asshole cockatoo was also gay, but then I knew it'd be too mean of me for not really knowing him just yet.

"Well sit down." I looked to see that Kiba was sitting across from Sakura now, with an empty seat to his left, and an empty seat to her right. I chose the first of the two spots, next to Kiba.

"Good morning class!" We heard just before the bell rang out. The teacher sighed as though she were irritated by the noise as it looked like she was about to continue talking but the bell got in the way. Once it stopped however she let out a breath that it seemed she held. "Sorry, good morning class. I've given all of you about two months to choose your seats. So starting today, where you are sitting right now, is where you are sitting for the rest of the year, got it?" She said with a sweet smile.

"Well at least she seems nice." I whispered to where only Sakura and Kiba could hear. They both looked at me with pity.

"Yeah, for now but just wait till someone in here manages to piss her off. That's when shit hits the fan." Kiba explained as he leaned a little closer to try and tell this to me.

"Mr. Inuzuka, would you like to share with the class what it is you and our newest student are talking about?" The teacher asked. We both looked up to her in surprise, her black hair was wavy and long, going a little way down her back. But what set me on edge were those strange red colored eyes. Maybe they were contacts. I wasn't sure.

"No thank you Ms. Kurenai." He answered with an obvious daunted expression.

The woman nodded slightly as if to say '**that's right.**' She then turned to the whiteboard with dry erase markers, and started to mark the board with what people were to be doing for the day. According to the board, we were to be making models of one of our favorite things out of cardboard, paper, and anything else that we thought we might need.

She went on to explain that the time limit was till the end of class, which is when we had to turn in whatever it was that we had; if we were finished with it or not.

With all intents and purposes, I meant to make a frog cut out. But as I was working, I never really got it to stand up long enough for me to let the glue dry. So I wrecked the piece and started again.

This time I did a much easier thing that I remember seeing once. It was a mask in the shape of a frog face. I was hoping that I'd have time to paint it. But this was about the moment that I heard hushed cursing.

Looking over toward where the voice was coming from, I raised a brow as I watched Kiba struggle to get two pieces of cardboard to stick to one another. "What's the rocket for?" I asked looking at the project that looked almost done.

He stopped; putting his hands down he sighed and made a pouty face, "It's supposed to be a dog." He said softly as to try to not catch anyone else's attention. But when he said this, both Sakura and I looked at the so called dog. We couldn't help it when we broke out into a fit of laughter.

"It's not funny!" He hollered at us, only making us laugh harder. Now it seemed that the whole class was looking at us. An obviously annoyed Kurenai was now heading her way over toward us with a sweet smile as her only expression.

When she stopped at our table, she looked at each of our projects; her eyes lingered on Kiba's for a moment before she spoke up, "Naruto that's a great looking mask. I hope you have time to paint it!" Then she looked to Sakura, "Is this a Sakura Cherry Blossom tree?" She asked, to which Sakura had nodded with one of her cheery smiles. Indeed it looked like a Cherry Blossom tree, and she had even moved on to painting the petals pink. But finally Kurenai turned to Kiba, "Nice rocket. Keep it up there Kiba." She said with a kind smile before walking away.

Kiba's face only turned even more morbidly pouty. "It's a dog…" He said under his breath with us laughing hysterically now.

I tried to watch through my laughter as he went to grab another piece of cardboard. But when he tried to open his hand to grab it; his fingers didn't move from the fist he was holding. I wiped a tear from my eye from laughing so hard to see what he was doing.

He looked at me a little worried as he tried again and again to open his hand. "Ummm I can't open my hand." He said in a hushed tone.

I gave him a look of confusion before grabbing hold of his fist and pulling it to me before looking at it. I could see the thin white layer of glue that already dried to his skin, and just the tip of a bottle in his hand. "Kiba, you know…you're using super glue right?" I asked turning to him.

His face told me that he hadn't realized that. To which he just pressed his lips and a groan came from deep in his throat. "Don't tell me that." He said before looking away toward the front of the class to where the teacher was talking with another student who seemed to be doing an even worse job than Kiba on his project. I couldn't even guess what it was.

"Well let's get this off you." I told him as I stood from my stool.

"How? Super glue is meant to stick. I mean I know it comes off, but that's after a bit of time, and there's a lot here that's dried." He said as he followed my pull toward the sink.

"Actually, super glue isn't that super. It can come off skin with just soap and water, with a bit of scrubbing of course." I explained when we got to the sink. I turned on the hot water, making sure it wasn't too hot. Then came the sponge and the soap. "I can't promise I'll get it all though." I said as I started to lather his hand in the slick substance.

For a good five minutes, I sat there with him trying to get the super glue off his hand. I'd been able to get his index finger free from the side of the bottle. So far that was all that I could manage, but I didn't give up.

"Hey, Naruto?" Kiba said my name softly. We were both leaning over the sink to look at his hand, so his face was rather close to mind while I worked.

"Hmm?" I hummed as to note that I heard him. I didn't pull my eyes from his hand.

"Do you like me?" He asked. I didn't really think of the question as I worked.

"Of course." I answered, obviously oblivious to what he really meant. I was too consumed in getting this damned glue off him that I wasn't paying much attention to anything else.

"I mean, I know it's only the second day we've met, but do you…like-like me?" He asked the end with a little concern and in a whisper.

I stopped what I was doing for just a second, hesitating to answer him before I continued. I didn't know what to say to him. I couldn't tell him yes, because he was so far my only friend here. I mean sure there was Sakura, but if I didn't have Kiba around, she probably wouldn't be around too much longer anyway.

"Naruto?" He asked again as he moved the only free finger on the hand I was working on. I looked to him, with my hands still on his, holding them there with soap suds still covering both my hands and just the one of his.

"Kiba, I'm not going to respond to that." I stated before turning back to his hands. Of course I knew that the answer I gave could have been taken either way. If he wanted me to like him, then it could be taken as me not wanting to reject him. If it was him being worried that I did like him, then it could be taken as I didn't want to tell him I did.

I was very worried about the second scenario.

"Alright, I won't ask again." He said this as if he were a little let down from my answer.

Within the next twenty minutes, the last few minutes of class, I managed to get the bottle free from his hand, and most of the glue off him. Not all, as I had warned earlier, but most of it. When I was done, I allowed Kiba his hand back, and began to dry my own.

"Now what have we learned today, Kiba?" I asked as I used the paper towels to pick up the glue bottle from the bottom of the sink and toss it in the wastebasket.

"Not to squeeze super glue all over my hand?" He told me, and I just chuckled before placing a nicely shot elbow into his side, "Oww okay okay, I learned not to use the super glue at all?" He seemed like he was questioning that, so I gave him a look that just said '**Are you sure?**' before I shook my head and started back toward my seat.

When I got about half way there, I groaned as the bell rang, "Damn, I didn't get to paint the mask." I said with a grumble before grabbing said mask off my table to turn in, and slinging my messenger bag over my shoulder.

When I left the room and was headed toward the lunch room when I heard Kiba call after me. I turned to see him partially running to catch up with me. "Hey I was wondering, do you want to hang out again today?" He asked. I turned and started toward the lunch room with him now walking beside me.

"Today? Sure I don't see why not, I have the house to myself again till my mom gets home from work." I told him as I felt my phone in my pocket vibrate.

Pulling the device from my pocket, I saw that it was my mother. "_Be sure to take your pill as soon as you get home!_" I read it with a sigh. My mom always felt the need to remind me of this, when I remember before she even thinks of it. I'd actually taken it this morning, so there was no need to worry about taking it again.

I messaged back that I had this morning before turning to Kiba. "What do you want to do today though? I mean, I have a few games in the living room, but other than that there's not much to do around there that's fun." I explained as we got in line to get our food. I only got a juice carton and followed Kiba to the table he wanted to sit at.

All of his friends were there, including the one that hated every part of my being.

:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:

Walking out to my car, the school day finally over, I sighed to myself as I now had to wait for Kiba to get here from the opposite side of the building. He may have been one of the top jocks, but it seemed a little weird for him to be in stage craft.

It seemed that most of the guys in drama and stage craft were all gay, just by how they walked, talked, and dressed around here. I mean, I even saw one guy wearing heels and a purse! Not that it bothered me; the only bother was the fact that I now had to wait here for my friend to get over here from the opposite side of the grounds.

I sat on the hood as car by car drove passed me, "Hey what are you doing out here by yourself? Waiting for someone?" I heard someone ask. I turned to see a boy with a light-gray colored hair and pink looking eyes. The weird part about his eyes was that they didn't consist of pupils, it was unusual. He didn't seem much older than I.

"Oh hey. I'm just waiting for a friend." I said. The guy held his hands behind his back for a moment longer, and then stretched out his right hand to me.

"My name is Yagura*, although some people call me Three. Who might you be?" He asked.

I looked from his hand to his face before taking it and shaking, "The name is Naruto." I told him. "Nein on the nickname, just Naruto." I said as I accidentally switched to German as I told him I didn't have a nickname.

"Nine?" He asked with what looked like surprise. "Well I'll be. I never actually thought I'd get to meet Nine." He said with a smile.

"Yagura? What are you doing over here?" We both looked to see Kiba was walking toward us now.

"Oh I was just introducing myself to Nine here." He said with a smile. I just shook my head before dropping his hand from mine.

"I didn't mean my nickname was Nine. I meant nein, being the German word for no. I meant to say I don't have a nickname." I explained. I had no idea why this guy bothered me, but there was something about him that also set me at ease.

"Oh so you're not Nine? Damn, and here I thought I'd finally get to meet that infamous Ninth." He said with a shrug before turning back to Kiba, "What are you doing over here Kibbles?" He asked.

"I'm just hanging out here with my friend after school. If there's anything you need though, go see Shikamaru. He's a lot better with that sort of thing than I am." For the longest time, I'd not know what he was talking about. But at this moment I thought he was talking about drugs.

"Nope, I don't need anything like that right now." He said with a smile. As he turned back to me, he put two fingers to his brow as a salute, "I'll see you around Nine." He said with a chuckle before walking off. I could feel irritation coming on.

"I don't know why but something about that guy bothers me." I said as I turned to get into my car. Kiba followed and got into the other side before tossing his bag into the back seats of the car.

"Well he's a good guy. He's really cool actually, although he's quite uptight about respect. I swear he's going to either be a great leader, or a crazy one, but one day he's gonna lead something big. That's for sure." He said as he smiled to me.

Shaking my head I pulled back out of the parking spot I had occupied before pulling out toward the road.

As I drove, I looked out toward the sky. It was getting gray. "So what was that about 'stuff' that he might need? What are you and Shika, some kind of drug dealers?" I asked, taking my eyes off the road just long enough to look at his reaction before looking back to the street ahead.

He just laughed and shook his head, "Naw, I'm not into that at all. I think that shit is stupid really, we just help them out a lot." He told me. There was a key word in that statement that made me curious.

"They? You mean there is more than one number for brains around school?" I asked. I heard him laugh again at my question. I didn't know why he was laughing, I mean, I didn't know there were people who went by numbers instead of names.

"Yeah man, there are six of them." He told me. I looked to him somewhat surprised, to be honest, when I heard that there were more than just one, I thought there might be around fifteen to twenty. But just six? That was actually surprising, and such a random number.

"Yeah, they keep saying that they haven't found One, Four, Eight, Nine or Ten." He said with a shrug as if he didn't know what that actually meant.

As the clouds began to open up and cry down to the earth, I turned the corner as I headed down the long road that leads directly to my house. "Well, I can say that they're probably a weird bunch. I mean, I guess it's kind of nice of them to try and bring me into their group of friends, but to give me a number right off the bat? Don't you think that's a little weird?"

Kiba just laughed it off, but there was something about that laugh that had me concerned. I figured he knew something that I didn't about that guy Yagura, but I didn't really feel like I should care. All I cared about at the moment was what was going on in front of me, and who it was that was beside me.

* * *

><p><strong>Thank you all for reading! It's been simply amazing to have the idea to rewrite this. I love my idea for it even better right now because of the introduction to Yagura, who is actually my favorite of the Jinchuriki. I'm trying to make him less anal about the idea of respect. Although it's still going to be an aspect, so I'm not actually changing his persona.<strong>

**Now you may ask if I'm going to be introducing the other Jinchuriki? Well that's quite the accusation. I mean, I have already the mention of Gaara, its Naruto's POV, and then you just met Yagura. So what're the odds of me actually bringing the others in you might ask? Well it's a simple answer from me… I'm not telling.**

**Some of you may have noticed an error with my math? Like, you could be asking how there are already six people with numbers, when there are only ten tailed beasts, and five of them aren't even there? I mean obviously 6+5=11 right? So how are there 11 tailed beasts? Anyone wanna take a gander?**

**Also, doesn't it seem that Kiba has a secret too?**

**I wanna hear what you people are guessing as to what's going on! It's the same idea that I had with the original story of this, but never actually got to it! So let me know please?**


	3. A Real World Dream with Lightning Kisses

**CHAPTER 3: A Real World Dream with Lightning Kisses**

It was the second day of my new school that I hung out with Kiba again; we were currently having ramen in my kitchen, sitting at the island on the wooden stools that sat at one side. He was telling me about one of the soccer games that he'd played against some other school.

He went on to explain how he'd scored the winning goal, and about how he really couldn't have done it without the help of his team.

"I'm sure you could have done it." I told him with a smile. Of course he could have, if he was the captain and the star player of the team, which meant that he was the best out of them.

"No, really, that school we went against was really hard!" He explained to me. I wouldn't ever tell him about it, but I was also pretty good at soccer. I didn't usually like to play because that included physical activities, which just weren't my thing.

We cleaned up the dishes, and looked outside. It was still a torrential down pour. "I'm going to check the news to see when this storm should lighten up. Hopefully soon." I said as I grabbed the remote to the small television that sat next to the stove in the kitchen.

He got up and walked off; my guess was he was headed to the bathroom. Flicking on the tele, I switched it to the news and watched. Looking at the radar, I hugged my knees to my chest while I was planted on the stool. With a huff, I saw that the storm was a good few miles long. And according to the news, the rain was to continue for a while longer into the night.

With a flash of lightning, and the sound of thunder, all the lights turned off, the television died, and even the clocks turned off on me. I looked around before grumbling about the damned electricity. "I can't believe this. No power thanks to this damned storm."

Pulling out my phone, I dialed my mom's work number. It didn't go through. I figured the power went off at her work too. She worked as a nurse at the local hospital, mostly working the reception desk. So I tried her cell instead.

"Naruto are you okay?" She asked as soon as she picked up.

"Yeah mom, I'm alright." I told her. "I was just calling to say the power is out, but I guess it went out there too huh? I couldn't get through on your work phone." I told her.

"Naruto?" I heard from behind me. I turned to see Kiba was wondering about in the dark.

"Over here Kiba." I said. I walked around the darkened room to get to where the boy was standing. I figured he couldn't see too well because of the power being out.

"Kiba's there? Oh then don't let me hold you up, and remember wear a condom!" My mother called before I heard the click of her hanging up. I pulled the phone away from my ear, having it illuminate my face as I gave it a weird look.

"I can't believe her." I said as I turned on the flashlight that was on the back of my phone.

"So what are we going to do about the power? We can't really play video games until someone comes out to fix it. And around here, they don't send anyone until the storm has passed." Kiba explained. I knew that already though. I'd experienced black outs before.

"We have a few candles in the closet in the bathroom. I'll grab those to light the house." I said as I moved around him.

"I'll help." He added for me, "It's not like I have anything better to do anyway." He said with a chuckle. He did have a point there, without electricity there wasn't much that he could do around here.

I handed him multiple candles, almost all of them in a glass jar. When we had about fifteen, we headed back down to the kitchen. Setting them everywhere we could to light the house, we managed to lighten the kitchen, the living room, and the bathroom.

"These should last a few hours at most. My mom is going to take a while to get home now. It usually is like that whenever there's a blackout. They need to keep all staff at the hospital longer because of not having power. Of course they have backup generators." I said before turning and heading to the back doors.

I looked out the glass sliding door toward the sky. It was a dark gray, and there was hardly any light. By looking at my phone, I noticed that it was almost six, which meant the sun was going down right now.

As I looked up, I could see the trees that reached out around my yard were blowing in the wind rather roughly. The winds were strong so hopefully they'd blow the storm away sooner.

"It's been a while since we've had a tropical storm." Kiba said as he leaned his forehead against the doors, looking out with me.

I couldn't help what I was doing next; as if the rain was calling me, I opened the doors and set my phone on the counter before walking out into the storm. I could just barely make out the words Kiba was calling out to me over the sound of the rain padding against everything, and the wind screaming around me.

I stood there in the middle of the soaked pavement. Looking toward the sky with my eyes closed. I felt the rain wash over me, and the wind push against my being. It felt unreal. I knew that it wasn't, I knew that I was standing there in this storm with the rain washing over me, but it still didn't feel completely real.

I let my arms rise from my sides, outstretched almost like wings. My palms toward the sky, my fingers stretched as far apart as possible; water filled my hands. I smiled to myself as I could feel my eyelids flicker with the drops that landed on them.

I don't know when it happened, and I'm not sure how it did, but after a moment I felt arms snake around my form and hold onto me. I jumped slightly when I felt them, but when the chin of the person landed on my shoulder, I leaned my head over to theirs just to have the contact between us.

"Naruto, are you alright?" I heard in my ear. It was soft, kind, and a little concerned, but it was friendly, and there.

"Yeah, I'm good. It's just weird ya know, I feel the rain and your touch. At the same time, it doesn't feel real." I answered. I didn't know why I told him, I don't know what came over me for doing that, but something did, and I did.

I was spun around to face Kiba now, "Naruto, this is real. This storm is real, and I am real." I heard his voice over the rain, over the wind. I looked away slightly, just turning my head to the side of me to not have to look him in the eye.

"I'm sorry, it just feels like I've been dreaming, and that this is a dream I can't wake up from. I kind of don't want to wake up, with you here…" I told him; my face was turning red, and I couldn't do anything to stop that.

"Naruto…" He whispered my name, I had to strain myself to hear the word, but I heard it. When I looked up to him, what happened next made me not only feel like I was dreaming, but it made me feel like I was flying.

His left hand was on my right hip, his right hand on the left side of my neck. When he pulled me closer to him, his hand snaked around my waist and wrapped me up holding on. His thumb rubbed the front of my neck, moving up to the bottom of my jaw. The lightning that struck didn't make thunder, it didn't make a flash. It was lightning that struck me, sending electricity down my body as those warm lips brushed against mine before capturing them in a sensation that I wasn't used to.

The feeling of the rain beating against my skin started to fade, my senses no longer allowed me to feel the wind, and my perception of time seemed to slow as the rain seemed like it was no longer falling. There was no sound from the wind, and no cold from the brisk air that came under the storm clouds.

Unorthodox, electric, intoxicating, captivating. All of these words described how the touch felt, but even when you put them together, it didn't feel like enough words to detail the feeling I got from it.

I could feel his lips press stronger to my own, but he wasn't asking for entrance. It felt as though he was hungry for my acceptance of the gesture, not hungry for my body. So after a moment of hesitation, I kissed back.

When I did, everything seemed to fade back to reality, as I now felt the rain and could hear the wind. The warmth in my body dissipated as I stood there longer in the rain with Kiba wrapped with my arms around his waist.

When he pulled back from me, he smiled sweetly to me. It wasn't like one of his usual smiles. It was one that felt like he was just happy with how he was right now. It wasn't a smile for the future, or from the past. It was a smile that let me know that he was here, right now.

"Why did you..?" I pulled back slightly so that I could get a better view of his features that lay in front of me.

He didn't say anything; he just pulled me into a hug and held me for a minute. For a few seconds, my hands didn't move because I was just startled from the unusual action. But a little after those few seconds, my hands moved around him and pulled him close.

"Thank you, Kiba. For being here, for being a friend to me." I whispered. I felt his breath as though he chuckled a little. But when he let me go, he still held onto my hand as he pulled me back toward the house.

I went with the tug, not really caring what happened now. But when we got into the house, I pulled him toward the kitchen instead of where he seemed to be trying to take me. He didn't seem to protest.

"I can't have wet clothes through the house. My mom will kill me." I whispered as to not destroy what moment we seemed to have created. I heard him chuckle as I saw the dim candle light on his face flicker.

"Alright, so what are we going to do?" He asked.

Letting go of his hand, I leaned over and blew out the candle that was next to us. I heard him make a sound as if questioning why I did that.

I felt him jump as my fingers touched his sides lightly, but his form calmed after a minute; my fingers snaked their way under his shirt. Resting my palms against his warm stomach, I could feel the muscles that were under the skin. As I pushed my hands father and farther up his stomach, past his navel, to the sides of his ribs, to his pecs, I could feel all those muscles.

"Naruto." I heard his raspy voice. "Be careful, after all I—"

"Shut up. I know that already." I cut him off with a whisper, "I don't want to make you uncomfortable." I answered as I grabbed the material of his shirt and pulled it over his head. "I just can't have you walking around in wet clothes getting water everywhere." I said as I tossed his shirt into the sink that I stood next to.

I could feel his hands on my stomach, resting against me. He didn't move his hands for a little while, just let them linger. His fingers started to inch their way down my shirt; he grabbed hold of the material, lifting it off me. I chuckled as he seemed to have a problem getting it off from around my head. Once I was freed, I let my hands slide down his front to the edge of his pants. The jeans were soaked through from the heavy rain. I guessed they weighed at least double their weight, maybe triple. But it wouldn't matter soon, as my fingers laced themselves around the button carefully before releasing it.

Having been this close to him, having been the one removing his clothes, my hands shook lightly as my nerves were on edge; they were screaming at me really. His hands came over my own, holding them steady.

"Let me." He whispered as I removed my hands slowly to allow him to finish removing the clothing. I couldn't see him clearly now due to having blown out the candle, but I could feel his wet hair rub my stomach as he bent over to remove the pants from his legs. It tickled really, but I didn't let it bother me.

I started on my own pants, but I still shook lightly from now standing right in front of an attractive guy, stripping down to my underwear. Despite being in almost complete darkness, I couldn't stop myself from shaking. "Are you cold?" I heard as Kiba's hands found mine, and replaced them with unbuttoning my pants, and unzipping them. I pulled them off on my own however, not allowing him to kneel down in front of me while he was removing my pants for me.

Once all but our boxers were off, I tossed all the clothing into the sink as I grabbed hold of Kiba's wrist and pulled him along my dark house. I knew where everything was, so I was able to lead him with only minimal wall bumps and one toe stub. I laughed each time he ran into something, because I'd always give him warning.

"Alright, stairs here." I said as I started up those steps, but again, he messed up and tripped. Tumbling a little he let go of my hand now and fell forward.

I heard the thump and sighed before turning back. I couldn't actually see him, but I saw his form lying against the stairs. I was about to ask if he was alright, but then I heard a deep laugh break the darkness. He was laughing at his mistake of missing and tumbling on the stairs, and to be honest, hearing him laugh put me at ease and before I knew it, I was laughing right along with him.

"C-come on." I said through trying to catch my breath.

I heard him shuffling to get to his feet, and once he stood, he reached out for me. Except I yelped when I felt his hand, having him put it right against my butt. He pulled back quickly before apologizing and moving his hand onto the railing of the stairs. He was obviously listening to my steps now, because I moved up the stairs, and he seemed to seamlessly move up now.

When we finally got to the top of the stairs, I waited for him a few feet from the steps. And just as I figured, he moved up the stairs, took a few more steps, and bumped right into me.

"Oh sorry, I can't see anything up here." He said with a grumble. I just snickered and placed my hand against his warm chest. I moved my hand up onto his right shoulder, then down his arm till I was able to grab hold of his hand. Leading the way to my bedroom, and pushed the door ajar. I usually left my door open just slightly when I would leave for school.

"Take off those wet boxers; I'll give you some dry ones." I told him as I let go of his hand and moved to my dresser. I shuffled my hands through the clothes as I tried to find some loose fitting boxers that might fit him.

"Just toss me some gym shorts; I don't need to steal your boxers." He told me. I thought about it before shifting to the bottom drawer where I kept my gym shorts. I found a pair automatically, and tossed them to where I'd heard his voice. I heard of 'oof' sound as I guessed I hit him in the face with them.

I swiftly changed into a different pair of underwear, although the same small size as the first pair that I had worn.

Finally in a pair of dry underwear, I sighed with delight from the soft feeling against my skin.

Hearing the creak of springs, I guessed that Kiba had found my bed. I had to agree though, laying down did sound nice after finding out that one had no power. What else were people to do without the ability to see? I moved over to the bed, and put my hands onto the comforter. Searching around as I crawled slowly up toward the headboard of the bed, I bumped Kiba with my left hand.

"Right here." He whispered, of course that was obvious, so I just moved to the right a little and went ahead to lay down on my pillow. And bulls-eye, I found the pillow under my head, but there was something hard on it as well.

I reached up around my head, only to grab onto Kiba's left arm. Touching it slight as to try and find out what it was, I heard him chuckle before he reached his other arm out and grabbed hold of my hand. After realizing that it was just him, I snuggled into his form as I felt his left arm pull me closer to him. "Go to sleep." He told me.

And I did. I let my eyes close in the darkness, only to be greeted by a now all too familiar darkness that was that of the back of my eyelids. With a smile to myself, I hummed softly with gee before hearing him also start to hum. But it wasn't of joy or any emotion at all really. It was that of a song, one that I didn't actually recognize. But it was calming, and sweet.

I don't know when I had fallen asleep. I felt something poking at my foot; I kicked at it only to have it poke harder. Groaning a little, I looked up from the pillow I was laying on, which actually seemed to be Kiba's chest. I looked around the now illuminated room before wiping the sleep from my eyes.

"Naruto, it's time for you two to get up. School is in an hour, and I don't know if your friend is going to want to be late." I heard in a soft voice. I looked up to the voice, who still held a slightly blurry face, but when I could make out the red locks that were her hair, I groaned.

"Mom, let me sleep a little longer." I whispered as to not wake Kiba.

She chuckled, "Well if I do that, then who is going to clean up your clothes from the kitchen? I hope you wore a condom." I heard her.

My form shot upright to look her in the eye. With sleep hindering my vision only slightly now, I could make out her face finally as I shot a glare at her. "I didn't have sex with him." I noted before grumbling about how ridiculous my mother was. She only giggled and moved along with me to the kitchen.

I didn't stop mumbling as I looked around. The candles had all been put away, and the clocks all seemed to be set properly again. And true enough, it was an hour till school started. "I can't believe we slept through that whole storm." I said with a sigh and a smile at how well I'd actually slept.

"Well actually, Kiba didn't sleep through the storm. He was awake when I got home, and he asked if it was alright for him to stay over tonight because he didn't want either of us to be driving unnecessarily in the rain last night." My mom said as she poured herself a cup of coffee. I just nodded as I tossed the clothes in the dryer that was in the hall closet a little ways away from the downstairs bathroom.

"Well I hope he called his mom and told her that he was staying." I said as I started the machine and started up toward my room once again.

When I got there, I quickly closed the door and turned to wake Kiba up from my bed. What I saw was something that made me freeze in place. He was sleeping soundly, his form facing the place I had been asleep in. He had allowed me to use him as a pillow, and I used him like such without even realizing it. It felt weird to have someone around who would allow such a thing for me, but it made me smile.

"Kiba." I called as I moved over to the bed and pushed his shoulder lightly.

When he grabbed my hand quickly, I had no time to react to when he had pulled me over him and back onto the bed. I yelped with surprise and started to laugh as he wrapped his arms around me, pulling me close to his form. "Kiba, come on we're going to be late for school, and I still need a shower." I said to him as I struggled to be freed from his grasp.

"But I just wanna stay here. It's warm right..." He moved his hands down my body, "here." He said finally as I yelped from his hands having moved to my crotch. I pushed his hands a little farther down away from it as I could feel myself slightly harden from the touch of his hands.

"Kiba." I whined his name as I struggled just a little before he finally let go.

"Alright fine, I guess we can go to school today. But one of these days Naruto, mark my words; I will get you to skip class with me." He said with a cocky smile on his lips. Of course I knew that eventually I'd cave in and do as he said, but it was not going to be on the first week of going to a new school.

I just shrugged a 'maybe' despite what I was thinking, and moved off the bed. As I grabbed clean clothes for after my shower, I also grabbed the towel that sat on top of my dresser. "Be up and dressed by the time I'm out of the shower." I commanded.

"Yessir." Kiba said as he sat upright quickly and gave a salute. I couldn't help but stick my tongue out at him sarcastically. "Don't stick that out unless you plan on using it." He warned.

I could feel my face turning at least ten shades of red darker. I wasn't sure what he meant, but I was sure where my mind was wondering was close. I just turned away with him laughing as I closed the bathroom door that was connected to my bedroom. Leaning against the door, I let out a breath and pushed away as I started to remove the little bit of clothing that I wore.

My shower was quick, having a guest over usually made me hurry it up in the mornings, but that wasn't the only reason. It was a school day after all, and I was going to have breakfast before I left, I swore it to myself.

When I got out, I made sure to dry myself before putting on the underwear that I had grabbed earlier. It was a small pair again. Black with a purple checkered pattern on them. After the underwear were came the pale blue jeans; they were a slim fit, but being girl's jeans originally, they fit snuggly but comfortably. Lastly I put on a black pinstripe v-neck shirt that was purely cotton.

When I finally came from the bathroom, I looked around. I was looking to see Kiba in my room, but he wasn't there. I figured he'd gone down stairs to the kitchen, probably to get something to eat. So I followed in suit.

When I got down there, I had indeed found him sitting at the island counter that sat in the middle of the kitchen. He had an apple in hand, and a cup of black coffee in front of him. As I moved into the kitchen, I shook my head when I got next to him so that the water that was still in my hair would be thrown onto him.

He hissed as though it were burning him and tried to swat at me; horribly I might add. As I chuckled, I moved to the cabinets before grabbing a bowl and the milk from the fridge. I set both on the counter as I pulled out my favorite cereal, Lucky Charms.

"You're such a kid." I heard Kiba say as I turned to see him with a smile before he took a sip of coffee. Shooting him a glare I made a face as though I were trying to mimic him without moving my lips.

"Don't be jealous because I have the awesome mom who buys me my favorite cereal." I said as I poured the breakfast food in the bowl along with the milk.

"Oh don't worry; I'm not jealous of that. Although your spoon on the other hand. I am a little jealous of the treatment you're giving it." He said this just as my mom walked into the kitchen, which was also the moment that I put a spoonful of cereal into my mouth.

"What the hell did I just walk in on? Some type of foreplay to a new porn flick? Naruto, I've told you about shooting porn in the kitchen, you've gotta be on the counter! I mean, I don't mind you doing it in here, just clean up afterward, and at least give me a warning first." My mom said this just as she walked in. My face couldn't be anymore red than it was when I heard that. The next thing I heard was something that I found absolutely captivating; a great big howl of laughter shattered the awkward silence.

My mom stood there with a proud smile on her lips, Kiba was now on the floor laughing what ass he didn't actually have off, and I stood there with a face that was redder than a tomato because of my mom's ridiculous sense of humor.

"Bitch." I said with a scoff before walking off toward my room once again.

* * *

><p><strong>Once again please give a wonderful thanks to my beta <strong>_**Blindseer0**_**, for whom I wouldn't be too sure of myself rewriting this story to make it better than before. I hoped you all enjoyed the chapter, and I hope to see some reviews maybe on what your thoughts were.**


	4. Black and Blonde: Fiends or Friends?

**CHAPTER 4: Black and Blonde****:**** Fiends****,**** or Friends?**

Here I stood, out in the field for gym class. Standing in front of the tall goal, I could see the freshly cut green grass like an ocean. If I didn't know any better, I'd have guessed we had taken a trip to the beach, but green water made the idea disgusting truthfully.

"Naruto!" I heard Shikamaru scream. I looked up from the grass to see Neji barreling down toward me with the soccer ball rolling in front of him. Shaking thoughts of the ocean from my brain, I readied myself to move.

As of now the score was a tie, six to six. The only ones on the opposing team that were able to get the ball past me and into the goal had been Lee, and Sasuke. So seeing Neji making his way toward me, made me glance around to check where the other two had been.

There; Sasuke was to my left and Lee was on the right. He could pass it to either of them, and they might be able to make it unless I had a better reaction time than their speed. I was closer to the right, where Lee was.

Lee was fast, faster than Sasuke when it came to this from what I'd found out from his previous scores, but with me being closer to him made it easier to block it. However if Neji had kicked it to Sasuke, I'd be able to move closer to him as he moved to get the ball, and I'd be able to block his shot. So either way it seemed I'd be able to block it.

I thought all this in a millisecond, or at least it felt that way. He kicked it toward Sasuke. Bad choice. I moved quickly to get in the way of the path he'd kick it to make the shot. There it was; the ball was off his foot and making its way toward me.

Putting my hands up, I was about to catch it. However, something was different with the kick. He had put enough force in the kick to where I wouldn't be able to catch it unless it hit me clear in the stomach. Even then I guessed I'd have been thrown back a foot or two.

I ducked. The ball grazed my hair. It hit the back net and bounced off. Without a thought of the ball, I looked to where Sasuke stood with his smirk in place. I opened my mouth so speak but the ball was still moving and hit me in the back.

Stumbling forward thanks to my being so low to the ground from ducking, I fell onto my hands and knees. "Serves you right," I heard Sasuke laugh before he turned away.

"You think that serves me right, you damned cockatoo?" I asked as I stood and dusted my knees off. My shorts had grass stains now; great.

"Excuse me? What did you call me?" I heard as I looked up to see him heading my way.

I smirked and raised a brow before tilting my head to the side. "I called you a damned cockatoo," I reiterated for him, but that wasn't all; my mouth kept moving. "Would you like me to say it slower next time so your rudimentary brain can comprehend what I'm saying?"

His hand fisted the collar of my shirt, pulling me toward him. "I dare you to say that now you asshat," he said, waiting for me to say it again.

"Would you like that to be verbatim or in a new style?" I asked with a cocky chuckle. I knew I was probably going to get hit for this, but I was fine with that. "And let me go you jealous prick."

"Jealous of what? You? Ha!" He laughed in my face before he pushed me backward. I was about to fall, but I felt something strong hold me before I could. Looking up I saw that it was Kiba who was holding my shoulders.

Sasuke had turned to walk away, but I couldn't let that happen now. I was not going to just let him walk away from that. "Yes I was talking about you being jealous of me!" He turned quickly as if he was going to say something, but I spoke up again. "You're just a closeted asshole who thinks he's all high and mighty! But does it end there with your jealousy? Of course not, you think that you are the only person that Kiba needs! Well news flash you damned birdbrain, he can have as many friends as he wants. He doesn't need to be stuck with someone who only thinks about themselves. Stop trying to steal everyone else's happiness just because you can't face the world on your own two feet!" I screamed this without even taking into account as to what I was saying. I would have continued on with my rant if I didn't have a hand come over my mouth to shut me up.

I looked from Kiba back to Sasuke, my eyes still filled with rage, but the look of anguish on his face made me soften. I could tell that I went too far. His stiffened form just turned, not a word said as he left for the locker rooms.

Lee looked to me with disbelief and shook his head before running to his friend. Neji was the next to go after him. "Wow, I didn't know you acted like this Naru," I heard Kiba's voice soft and slightly upset.

I'd fucked up, that was obvious. "Kiba…I didn't mean to say all of that. It just came pouring out and…" I didn't finish. How could I when I saw the far off look in those eyes that I wanted to look into forever.

"I know that he can be an asshole, but please don't try to hurt him like that anymore." The look he gave me wrenched my heartstrings.

"I'm sorry, he just doesn't leave me alone and he is always trying to get me to stop being your friend," I said as I looked down toward the grass.

"Seriously?" he asked as though he were surprised. I just nodded and sighed before shaking my head and looking up to him.

I was about to say something else, but I heard the coach's voice holler out, "ALRIGHT KIDS TIME TO GET BACK TO THE GAME! NARUTO COME SEE ME!"

I groaned before walking off the field toward the bleachers where he was moving to as well. He sat down at the edge of the bleachers and waited for me. When I was in ear shot, he spoke. "Naruto, what was all of that about?" he asked with a calm tone.

I was pleasantly surprised that he wasn't as crazy as he always seemed to be. "Sorry sir, I lost my temper because he intentionally aimed the ball for my head," I said softly before looking back toward the field where the other teens played. I caught Kiba looking over to me with a worried expression.

"Kiba, he's your friend right?" I turned back to see Guy looking out to the field behind me, keeping an eye on the students.

"Umm, yeah he is," I said again as I turned and leaned my back against the railing of the bleachers as I looked out to the teams that played. Kiba had taken my place as goalie. I figured he would have, he was the best choice aside from myself.

"He's a good guy. And I'm sure he'll make a great friend too," he said softly, but there was something lingering in his words. "Is he the reason you lost your temper with Sasuke?"

I looked down and kicked at the ground beneath my feet. "I guess you could say that," I said softly. I thought for a moment I'd have to repeat myself for him to hear.

"I'm only having you over here for this talk because it's my job Naruto. I don't mean to pry, I just don't want this to happen on a regular basis," he said as he stood up. I thought for a moment that he'd start walking back to the field again so that we could join in the game once more, but he just leaned his forearms against the railing that I was leaning back against.

"I understand," I said before looking backward up toward him. I wasn't sure what to say next. Was I supposed to just walk off toward the field again? No that'd be rude. Was I supposed to assume that he wanted me to sit out for the rest of the game? That's stupid to even ask. He seemed to be all about sports and exercise. So he wouldn't make someone sit out. I couldn't think of what he wanted, so I just stayed silent and looked out to the game again.

"You know Naruto," he started. I looked up to see him glancing toward me. "Kiba seems to have an interest in you. He keeps looking over here to see if you're going to be going to the principal's office or something," he said this as I looked out to my friend who was once again, looking in my direction instead of looking out for the ball. "Are you two dating?"

My head shot up to the teacher that was now looking back out to the field. "W-what?" My voice staggered before I shook my head nervously. "No, we're not dating. Besides, he's straight." I don't know why I told him this. It just came out so easily.

"I see," he spoke softly. Of course I knew that he understood the tone of my voice. If he hadn't he truly would have been an idiot. "Well get back out there, have some fun," he said. I just nodded and started toward the goal for my team. "Oh and Naruto!"

I looked back and raised a brow.

"Make sure you don't lose your temper like that again while in my class. Or I will send you to see Tsunade," he called as I was now far enough away that he'd have to at least raise his voice to call out to me.

I just waved him off as I made my way back to where Kiba stood. He was about to run to me, but I pointed to Ino, who was now rushing toward Kiba with the ball. He had to retaliate when she kicked the ball hard if he didn't want them to score yet again.

He just barely managed to keep the ball out of the goa. "Nice block," I called as I was just about to reach him. He just showed that cocky feral grin of his with a half-hearted wave.

"So what did Guy say?" he asked while he turned back to the field now that I was in my placement again.

"Just that I need to make sure I keep my temper in check, otherwise I get to face the wrath of Tsunade," I said this as if it were nothing, but the horror on Kiba's face made me think otherwise. "What is she that bad?" I asked with a raised brow.

He just laughed and shrugged, "I dunno. I've never had to go and see her for losing my temper on some kid who pissed me off," he said with a snicker before he ran off toward the ball now. If he wasn't who he was, that'd have pissed me off, but I just shook my head with a smile on my lips.

"You're a real trip that's for sure," I said with a chuckle.

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Again I found that Yagura kid standing out by the student parking lot. I was about to walk past him, but something in me compelled me to move toward him. "Hey there," I said with a wave of my hand.

He turned and smiled wide at me. "Well look at that, Nine has come to see me," he said with a wave of his hand. "What can I do you ye?"

I really didn't want anything, I just wanted to talk. "Can you not call me Nine? My name is Naruto," I told him again, "and I don't really want anything particular. Just wanted to talk is all," I answered.

He just nodded before smiling toward me and leaning closer. "Just talk? That's kind of boring. I get the feeling you don't know why you came over to me right now." He guessed it. I didn't know why I was here talking to him. Still, it felt right.

"Actually, you're right. I don't know why I came over here," I said honestly, "but to be frank with you, I want to actually get to know you. I don't know many people around here aside from Kiba," I told him as it came to mind. For whatever reason, it felt as though I had a connection to him. I just couldn't figure out why that was just yet.

"How kind of you. I'm glad that you came to me then," he said with a kind smile, holding his hand out to me.

Taking his hand, I shook it before smiling back at him. "Well I'm glad that we can be friends. Maybe we can hang out sometime soon?" I asked because I didn't know his schedule.

"We shall see about that, but I have an appointment to attend to," he said with a smile before walking off. Personally, I wasn't so sure about this whole idea of becoming his friend. I didn't know anything about him, and with the conversation that he had with Kiba the day before, it sounded like he was into some weird things.

I just nodded, waving him off slightly, and turned to go as well. Heading to my car, I pulled out my phone to check if I had any messages; there was one. Opening it, it was from the only number that I knew by heart, but didn't have in my contacts. I never really got around to saving it, I just let it be.

Opening the message, I read the two words that made me smile slightly to myself; _I'm home._

I sent a message back saying that I'd be home shortly before I jumped into my car and started her up. I wanted nothing more than to get home and see the one person I hadn't seen in a while.

It took me a little under twenty-five minutes to get home from the school. Once I'd pulled in, I saw the sleek black Audi A4 quattro, 4.0 turbo. I hesitated for a moment before getting out of my car and moving around to the black car in front of me. Running my hand along the side of it, I walked passed with a smile.

Just as I opened the door to walk in, I was attacked by a form near the same height as I, but it was different. I felt something squishy against my chest, and there was a blur of blonde hair. For a moment, I thought that I'd walked into the wrong house, but then I heard Temari's voice.

"It's been so long, geez. I never got your address, so Menma had to bring me with when he finally got everything taken care of back home," she said this all quickly and in one breath. I hugged her back as I tried to hold myself up from under her weight.

"It's good to see you too, Tem, but could you get off me? You're heavier than you think," I said this with no ill intent, but I got a rather harsh slap to my chest from her as she stepped back.

"You are so rude," she said with a shake of her head before hugging me again.

"Yeah yeah, now where is Menma?" I asked as I pulled away and headed into the house.

"Should still be in the kitchen. He said something about making everyone dinner," Temari told me as she followed and closed and locked the front door behind us.

I didn't even bother going to drop off my bag in my room before heading over to the kitchen. I hadn't seen Menma in almost three weeks. He had gone off to take care of some business or something that he refused to talk about before we moved. Afterward he just didn't come by until now. It wasn't unusual, but it was bothersome.

"Hey kid," I heard before turning to see the black haired doppelganger of myself standing by the oven while looking in through the front glass panel.

"Do you have to call me kid? We're the same age you know," I said before walking over to him with open arms and a smile. He hugged me back just as happily before pulling back and turning to the fridge.

"I know, but it's just a habit to call my baby brother kid," he laughed before turning and tossing a bottle into the air toward me. Out of reflex I caught it and looked at the item. It was one of his favorite beers.

"I don't know how you get these when you're not old enough to even buy alcohol," I said with a chuckle before resting the cap of it against the counter as I slapped the top of it. The cap popped off and flew to the floor rather sharply.

"I got my ways." He was drinking what I guessed to be his third one, by how many already lined the counter. "Now go clean up, dinner is almost ready."

He waved me off as I just turned and shook my head. Temari was standing against the archway of the kitchen with her arms crossed over her chest. I stuck my tongue out at her as I walked past toward my room. Before I couldn't see them anymore, I gave one last look over toward the kitchen in time to see Temari move behind my older-by-three-minutes brother and wrap her arms around his waist.

The two of them had been dating for as long as I had known the girl. It was actually how I had met her. She dated my brother, and I became her best friend. That's how things like that worked anyway right?

Dropping my bag on my bed, I turned around on my toes. I knew that I had a smile planted on my face. Taking a sip of beer, I set the drink on my dresser as I mulled over what I thought would be comfortable to wear. I decided on a pair of grey sweats and a white long sleeved shirt.

Grabbing my beer, I picked up the pants that I wore for the day and searched through the pockets. I was going to text Kiba and see what he was up to. Not that I was going to invite him over or something, but I really wanted to see how he was.

Moving from one pocket to the next, I bit my lip before I shook them upside down. No phone to be found. I threw them down before moving to my bag and searching through the contents of it. To tell you the truth, I didn't remember the last time I used it today other than to check my message from Menma saying that he was home.

I probably left it in my car. Moving down the stairs, I walked out into the kitchen to grab my keys. I apparently left them down there when my brother had given me a beer. When I got there, I saw Temari standing next to the sink on the phone. Menma was sitting at the island with a grin on his lips and his beer in his hands.

I looked from one of them to the other before Temari looked up and held a finger up as if to tell me to wait. "Alright, I'll see you soon," she said before she hung up and tossed the phone to me. I looked it over before realizing that it was my phone.

"Who were you talking to that you needed my phone?" I asked as I started to go through the call log.

"Your boyfriend," she said as she moved over to Menma's side and they both held the same shit-eating grin on their faces.

My stomach jumped up and into my throat. My finger lingered on Kiba's name as the last call. She called Kiba. She said 'see you soon.' "Is Kiba coming here?" I asked looking from her, to Menma, to my phone, and back to her.

She giggled before moving around to my side of the island. "But of course. We can't have a family dinner without Naruto's hot boytoy."

My face went bright with blood. I couldn't believe her. That was some audacity that she had there. I didn't say anything as I turned and high-tailed it out of the room, and up to my own. I was not going to let Kiba see me in such a ridiculous outfit!

I looked down at myself before I could feel my face heat again. Why was I worrying about what he sees me wear? I mean, we see each other in gym and there are no complaints, and last night we were…we were almost naked. In my bed. If my face didn't make a tomato look pale, I don't know what would.

Last night, we were next to naked. We were next to naked and dripping wet! My mind raced all around over the events of the night before. Through the fun and laughing we had while we ate, through his talk about going against another school, then to me standing in the rain, to him coming out and talking with me, and finally the kiss. That kiss. It was the best thing I'd ever felt, or at least it was till this moment.

Don't get me wrong, I've kissed people before. This was completely different. Kissing him felt so right, it felt so real. I could go on and on about how it felt so right. What confused me though is why he did it. Why did he kiss me?

I knew that he was straight. Why would he go and do something like that? I thought for a moment before coming up with the idea that the reason he'd done such was because it would have been possible for him to think that I was depressed about something and that was a quick way of him making me feel better.

That had to be it, there was no other explanation. So now under the realization that I didn't care what he saw me in, I headed back down to the kitchen where I knew that Temari and Menma were both waiting.

When I got down the stairs, I stopped at the bottom as I had heard laughter. It was the most beautiful sound that I'd heard in what felt like ages. He had to be here already.

"What's so funny out here?" I asked as I turned the corner to see my brother, and Temari standing next to the island both with a beer in their hands, and Kiba standing across from them with a beer in his own hand.

"Oh they were just telling me about how you almost flipped shit about them calling me over," Kiba teased. I swore right then to kill the two who were trying to embarrass me to no end.

"I didn't flip shit," I said with a glare at them before moving over to Kiba's side of the kitchen. I leaned against the counter as I sipped on my beer and looked over to my brother. He was mumbling something under his breath to his girlfriend.

"So tell me Kiba, are you single?" she asked as I choked back a gulp on my beer with a cough. Did she really just ask that?

I heard a slight chuckle from my friend. "Yes I am, for now," he said. I glanced up from the spot on the floor I'd been drilling a hole into, to see Temari's face. Her eyes were on me.

"So then are you gay?" she asked. This time I just smacked myself in the face.

"Temari please stop playing 20 questions with my friends," I said before grumbling about how ridiculous she was.

Again I heard Kiba chuckle at my reaction before he shook his head. "No I'm not gay. Sorry." Even though he was talking to her, I got the feeling that Temari wasn't the intended mark for the 'sorry' he'd just said.

Temari glared at me. She obviously wasn't going to give up on this. "So then are you at least bi?" she asked. Before he got a chance to respond, I grabbed his arm and pulled him off.

"Temari I swear you're worse than my mother with interrogations!" I hollered to her as I pulled Kiba along up to my room. "I am so sorry about that," I said as I held onto his arm and gripped my beer a little tighter in my right hand.

"What's there to be sorry about? One of your friends was trying to hook you up with a hot guy that she'd met and wanted you to be happy." His words made me recoil slightly and give him a look that just explained how cocky he was with that statement.

"You're just so full of it," I told him as I continued on, no longer holding onto his arm, "but yes, that was what she was trying to do."

When I opened my door, he didn't hesitate to walk on in as I held it for him. I had to take a second to myself, having only just realized how he'd smelled, I couldn't quite move from how it had left me. He smelled so intoxicating. There was no real way to describe it, but if I had to try to pin a name to it, I'd have to say it was a mixture between a cigar and dogs.

Sure the sound of it is weird in it of itself, but the mixture was irresistible.

I followed him in and set my beer on the desk next to my laptop. Turning, I rested against the wooden piece with my arms crossed over my chest. I didn't mean for it to look like I was about to interrogate him also, but I guessed that it looked that way.

"Just to put it out there, it was their idea for me to come over. If you don't want me to be here right now I can leave," he said as he moved away from the dresser where he leaned against. I never moved so fast in my life.

"No it's fine really," I said as I moved to grab hold of his arm. Of course, I didn't expect what he'd do next. He grabbed my wrist quickly and spun us around. I couldn't catch myself, as my balance was thrown off and we landed on the bed. He was leaning over me. I struggled to get free from his grasp, but he was too strong. No matter which way I jerked my body to try and get him to let go, he just pulled me back into place.

Under his intense gaze, I turned my head to the side as I could feel my face heat up. "W-what?" I asked quietly before glancing back toward him.

"What are you thinking about?" he questioned. He didn't move from his spot, he didn't avert his eyes; he just waited for my answer.

"Why does that matter?" I was the first to look away again. I didn't want to see the disappointment in not getting a real answer.

He was silent for a moment before I felt his breath on my cheek. "It matters to me," he answered.

With a huff, I bit my lip. I didn't know whether I should tell him that I was thinking about the kiss from the night before. "I was thinking…that I should probably apologize to Sasuke for what happened in gym," I lied; it was the best that I could come up with.

"I think you should," he told me with a serious tone, "but that's not what you were thinking about."

Damn he was good, how did he know? What gave me away? With a small sigh I looked back to him. "Alright fine. I was thinking about that kiss from last night." It was blunt and straight forward. I didn't want to deal with this, but being straight forward with it was the best way to get it over with. If he didn't want to talk about it ever again, I'd understand.

"What about the kiss from last night?" he asked, his lips were forming the feral grin that he always wore.

I staggered for a moment, was he happy I was thinking about it? Was he making fun of me? "I don't know what else to say on that subject." I tried to be the least bit excited while talking with him.

"Tell me the truth. Did you enjoy it?" he asked. He was now straddling my lap with his hands on either side of my head.

"W-wha..?" I could tell my eyes bugged out by the goofy smile on his lips. I closed my eyes tight before turning away again. "Yes. I liked it a lot actually."

I fidgeted under his gaze, "Naruto," he whispered. It was soft and quaint, but it was there. I didn't look though. I couldn't look to see his mocking smile. I wasn't sure I'd be able to hold myself together. I didn't need to choose. He placed his right hand against my cheek and pulled me to where I had to look at him.

In that second right there, I died. His lips were connected to mine once again. I was shocked to say the least. Feeling those lips against mine, that feeling from the night before fell over me. The shock of lightning, the slow of time, the loss of feeling anywhere else but my mouth. I couldn't do anything to keep that feeling out of my mind. I didn't want to.

I kissed back. I didn't know if he was kissing me because he wanted to make fun of me, or because he actually enjoyed it too. When I heard the moan through his throat, I guessed the latter of the two.

His tongue slipped out, licking over my lips before I gasped, and he plunged in. I could feel the appendage moving about inside my mouth, so I made sure he had a good time with it. Sucking lightly on it, I tried to pull it farther into my mouth as I attempted to wrap my own tongue around his.

I let out a moan of irritation when he'd pulled back. I didn't like him doing that already. His lips were a drug to me, and I was well on my way to an overdose. After taking a breather for a second, I reached up and connected our lips once again. I couldn't help it; he was everything I wanted so far.

A few pecks came from him before he pulled back once again with a chuckle. "Slow down there cowboy," he said in a whispered tone. I didn't want to slow down, but I could understand why he said it.

My face had never left its blushing state. "Sorry, I got a little ahead of myself. I don't even know if…," I said as I ran a hand through my hair. His hand came up and held my wrist right there on the top of my head.

"I didn't say I didn't like it. I just don't want to make you scream my name just yet." My mind was shot, right there, at those words. Had he said what I thought he said? That grin on his lips, was that because of what he said as well?

I was about to say something when my bedroom door opened to reveal both Temari and Menma standing there. Both Kiba and my heads shot to see who was there. If my face could be any more red, I was sure that they would name the color after me.

"Come on, the lasagna is ready," Menma said with a triumphant smirk on his lips as he turned and headed down the stairs again.

"Unless you want to eat each other instead!" Temari giggled before following my brother away.

"Oh. My. GOD!" I screamed in embarrassment. How could I not be embarrassed with a sibling and a best friend like them? They were ridiculous and it was not my day…

"Come on kid, let's go get some food. I'm guessing you're pretty hungry," Kiba said as he placed his hand gently on my stomach, which agreed with him as it growled in demand of food.

When he got off me, he held out a hand to help me to my feet. The smile on his lips never faltered when I reached out, and because of that smile, I smiled back. I couldn't help it, he was a drug and I didn't want to stop. I was going to die happy thanks to him.

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><p><strong>Another chapter down! I removed so much pointless things from the first story that I hardly recognize it! I like it…. Tell me what you all think, and let me know what you're hoping to see! Next chapter should be up soon!<strong>

**And a special note saying thanks to my wonderful and helpful beta, **_**Blindseer0.**_


	5. Photos of a Confession

**CHAPTER 5: Photos of a Confession**

Kiba had stayed almost the whole day when he came over. It was already almost midnight, and we were still sitting on the sofa with PlayStation controllers in our hands. Menma brought his PlayStation back with him when he came home.

"Mom is going to be home late. So go to bed on time, and don't do anything I would do," Menma had told me before he left to take Temari home. They left nearly half an hour ago. It was an hour trip one way back to her house. So Kiba and I were alone once again in the house, shooting one another in Call of Duty.

That's when I paused the game. "Kiba, can I ask you something?"

He looked to me from the game and raised a brow. "Sure ask away," he said before situating himself to look me in the eye, one leg resting on its side on the sofa.

"I wanted to ask…," I staggered for a moment; I didn't know how to bring it up without sounding awkward.

"About me kissing you?" he asked with a raised brow. I just nodded and averted my eyes from his. The musical sound of his chuckle made me look up to him once more to see him holding a kind smile on his face. It wasn't the usual grin, just one that was friendly and sweet. "Naruto, I didn't kiss you because I felt bad for you or anything. I wanted to because I like you."

My breath left my lungs at this moment. I couldn't believe what I'd just heard. Kiba liked me? Was that even possible? The look on my face was probably silly, because the kind smile on his face turned into one of humor.

"Are you serious?" I asked as I set down the controller that was in my hands. I didn't take my eyes off him as I saw him pursed his lips together and raised both eyebrows. It was a look that just simply said, yes.

I didn't realize what I had done before my body was moving across the couch and tackling Kiba off the seating. My arms wrapped around him, holding tightly. I heard his musical howl of a laugh and smiled to myself as I buried my face into his chest.

"Naruto, too tight, too tight!" he started to laugh out as I was squeezing him rather tightly. I didn't want to let go though. This was too good to be true, and I didn't want to lose this dream.

I released him nevertheless though, looking up to him I grinned the biggest I could. "I'm sorry, that just made me so happy to hear," I said with a slight chuckle, but it faded for a moment and I looked at him in confusion. "But I thought you told Temari that you weren't gay," I said with a frown.

"I never got to answer her question after that silly; you pulled me away before I could tell her that I was bi," he told me with his tongue sticking out.

Biting the inside of my cheek, I looked him square in the eye as I remembered something he'd once told me. "Don't stick that out unless you plan on using it," I told him with that big grin of mine coming back to my features.

The way that he looked, there was only one word that could describe it: Sexy. "Do you want me to use it?" he asked as he pushed me back to where my back was against the floor. "I can put it to some good use," He promised with a lick of his lips.

Oh god, oh god, oh god…I wanted to know all too well how he meant what he said there. I wanted to, but I was afraid of my brother or mother walking in. Of course, my brother would only make fun of me, but my mom would probably be mad about us 'having sex in the living room without warning.'

So really there was no need to worry, I just didn't want to have to face the embarrassment.

He pushed his lips against mine, but this time they weren't as sweet as the first time. They were hungry, devouring me. Moaning into the kiss, I pushed back to try and make it a little rougher, but I didn't have a need to do so once his hands came around to both sides of my head and gripped my hair roughly.

I gasped as he pulled my hair back a little to where I was facing away from him, getting a clear shot of the front door. It was bolted shut, good. His lips connected with my neck, and I lost my sight. Everything blurred a little as my eyes rolled back with a moan and I shut my eyes. He was biting softly, and sucking harshly on the sides of my neck now.

His left hand released my hair and moved down my sides till it rested on my waist. Once there, he slid the limb under my shirt and to my stomach. My breath hitched at the cold contact between his hand and my belly, but it rested back a second later.

His hand roamed over my chest, his mouth snacked on my neck, and his other hand held my hair just tight enough to allow him to hold me in place without losing his place on my skin. My own hands were now pressing against his stomach. Not trying to get him off, but trying to feel his body. Since the first day that I saw him shirtless, I wanted to run my hands over his body like this.

His hand rested against my hip as he moved back to admire his work on my neck. I could feel the heat there, and I knew instantly that there was more than likely a large dark mark on my skin. That feral grin came to canvas his face once again.

"Shirt off, now," I demanded, his grin only grew wider as he sat upright on my thighs. Crossing his arms, he grabbed the hem of the shirt before lifting it over himself. When I tell you that he could put the gods to shame, I kid you not. My hands were on the skin, running up every muscle of his stomach, through those defined lines. There was a small moan from him under my touch.

Kiba's hand on my side grabbed the hem of my white long sleeved shirt and started to pull it upward. I didn't object as I actually lifted my arms over my head so that he could remove the clothing from covering my form.

Once my bare skin was open, I felt the cool air around. Had someone turned on the air conditioner? I lost the thought when Kiba leaned over me again and connected our lips. But he didn't linger there, he moved down slightly to my neck before leaving light kisses over the bruised skin, kissing and sucking roughly on the skin that was exposed. He rested at my collar bone, where he made sure to leave the same dark bruise on the skin.

Taking in a deep breath, I couldn't stifle the moan that came out, but in an attempt, I pushed my nails into his back. I was probably pushing them hard enough to break skin, but with the treatment I was getting from him, it was either do that or let out all of those embarrassing moans that I didn't want to be heard.

Once he was sure another mark was left on my skin, he pulled back to look at his handiwork. The smile on his lips let me know that it was a darker mark this time. I had to let out a few deep breaths before I stuck my tongue out at him, and if you thought that would be a mistake, it wouldn't be to me. He moved down and captured the slick muscle into his mouth as he sucked hard on it while kissing me deeply.

That was it; I raked my hands down his back with my nails digging deep into the flesh. I could feel that I drew blood from it, but I didn't care. Looking at how he kept kissing me with a moan, it looked like he didn't care either.

When he finally pulled back with a smile and a heavy breath, he chuckled before we heard a click and a flash. He and I both looked toward the front door, where my mother stood with her phone pointed at us. That's right ladies and gentlemen, my mother just took a picture of Kiba and I like this, on the living room floor.

"Hi Kushina," Kiba said simply. He didn't even look flustered or even embarrassed from being caught by my mother!

I smack myself in the forehead, shutting my eyes tight, hoping it was all just a dream. "Please tell me you didn't just take a picture of us making out on the living room floor?" I asked with a rough sigh and a glance back to the woman who waved at the guy who still hadn't gotten off me.

"I didn't just take a picture of you and Kiba making out on the living room floor," She said simply as she walked passed, unfazed by the situation. I got the feeling that I was going to get an earful later. "I took a picture of you and Kiba after you were making out on the living room floor, and I sent it to your brother and your grandfather." She said the last part there with a wicked smile on her lips.

I pushed Kiba off me quickly before standing and running after her into the kitchen, "MOM!" I screamed as I reached for her phone and yanked it out of her hand to check if she had actually done so. I went through her messages, and saw that she had sent it to Menma, but so far hadn't sent it to my grandfather.

I had to act quickly as I moved through the messages and deleted it from Menma's thread with her, and then into the pictures to remove it from the phone completely. By the last second I had it, I pressed delete on the device just as she snatched the phone back from me and checking what I had done.

With a frown she looked at me. "Aw, you ruined my fun. I didn't go and ruin your fun with that hot guy out there did I?" she asked with an accusing finger pointing toward the living room. I turned to see Kiba was standing in the archway with that same smile gracing his features.

"How much did you see?" I asked with a raised brow when I turned back to her.

She said nothing as she walked up and pushed her finger against my bruised collar bone. "Enough to know this isn't from a fight," she said with a knowing smile.

Groaning, I turned to walk out before she spoke up again. "So is it safe to assume y'all are dating now?" she asked. I stopped mid-stride as my eyes zeroed in on Kiba.

"Absolutely," Kiba said with a wink at me before he turned and walked out. I saw the marks left from my nails, and bit back that same grin that held my lips earlier in the day. The marks down his back weren't deep by any means, but they were enough to draw blood, and they littered his back.

"Hey, Naru." I turned back to my mom with a sigh and an expression that just the same as sarcastically asking '**what**?' "Next time, go easier on him. I don't know if he'll enjoy a trip to the hospital for blood loss from the looks of those marks," she said waving a fork at me as she was digging out some of the left over lasagna.

Shaking my head I turned and smiled to myself as I headed toward my bedroom, where I thought for sure I'd find Kiba waiting. It was a weekend now, so it'd be safe to assume that he would be staying the night again. But of course, I had to make sure.

"Kiba, have you called your mom and talked to her yet? I mean, it's pretty late, and by my guess you do not want to go home tonight do you?" I asked with a raised brow as I saw that he was lying on his stomach on my bed, the scratches exposed to the world.

He really didn't say anything, but he turned his head to look over his shoulder at me before pointing to a bag that sat next to the door. I looked down at it before realizing that it was a bag full of clothes and things that one would need to stay the night at a friend's. "I already talked to her before I got here. She said its fine as long as I come back and walk Akamaru in the morning," he told me with a grin.

"Who's Akamaru?" I questioned before moving over to the bed and lying on my side, facing him. I ran my hand through his soft brown hair, my fingers laced through without any restraint.

The look on his face was amusing from how he reacted to having me play with his hair a little. "He's my dog, and my best friend," he said as he leaned his head into my touch. I started to ruffle his hair before I let go and lay on my back, looking to the ceiling.

"Kiba, did you mean what you said to my mom? About us dating I mean," I questioned. I didn't look to him when he looked over to me; I couldn't look at him. I was still so afraid of rejection, despite him having told me already that he liked me.

"Of course I meant it," he said softly before his fingers traced around my chin for a second before pulling me to face him and meet him in a tender kiss. It wasn't one that would lead to anything; it was one to say that he meant what he said.

He released me before he turned back to looking to his phone. I hadn't noticed he was holding it until now. So I decided to be nosy, moving up next to him I rested my head against his shoulder. "Who you texting?" I asked as I looked to the device.

I saw only the name before he closed the message and looked at me with a goofy smile. "Someone is nosy, I was just texting my sister Hana," he told me, and I figured he was telling the truth as that was the name I saw. He had mentioned a few times during school earlier that he did have a sister.

"So tell me about this brother of yours. You haven't really said much about him other than you've been living with him and your mom, but this is the first time I actually got to meet him out of the other two times that I'd come over," he said as he leaned on his elbow, looking at me with his face resting on his hand.

"Well what do you want to know?" I asked before moving to lie on my back once more. "I can't say much. I guess the best way you can learn about him is by asking him yourself. We usually don't talk about him, so I can't be honest when I say I know my brother like the back of my hand. He's always been rather secretive."

"Yeah, it would be easier to ask him yourself." We both looked toward the door to see Menma standing there with his arms crossed over his chest. He was wearing a black tee and just plain blue jeans. "Hey Kibbles, can I have a second to talk with you?" he asked before turning away and walking out of the room.

My brother never asked my friends, sorry boyfriends, to come have a word with him. What made him act this way with Kiba, I wondered. Said boy stood and moved to the door with a wink and a raise of his finger to me as to say he'd be just a second. But I couldn't resist it, I got up and walked over toward the door. Leaning against the wall, I tried to listen to the conversation.

"Kiba, do you know what the Akatsuki is?" I heard my brother's voice in a hushed tone.

"Yes I do. Why are you asking me about that?" By the sound of Kiba's voice, he was getting defensive. I didn't know what either of them were talking about at this moment, but I listened as intently as I possibly could.

"I wanted to ask you if you knew of it, and if you were a part of it. I know that some families around here are known to be. So is the Inuzuka family a part as well?" My brother didn't waver toward letting any detail fall as to what it was they were talking about. "I know that the Uchiha family and the Nara are a part already, so what's the Inuzuka's part in this?"

"I have no reason to answer that." Kiba's voice was harsher now, almost angry. I heard the boy's footsteps moving toward my room once more, and I rushed back to my bed to where I was before he'd left.

When he walked back into the room, he held the same smile that he had when he'd left the room. As he fell onto the bed next to me, I raised a brow. "What did my brother want?" I asked.

He looked at me before sticking his tongue out. "Just wanted to give me the older brother warning of taking care of his little bro," he said with a wink. I just smiled back, but it felt like I was forcing it. I knew that wasn't what they were talking about so why did he lie?

There was something going on, and I wanted to know what it was. But I wasn't going to push the issue. Not yet anyway.

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><p><strong>Okay so this chapter isn't as long as I'd like it to be, but my Beta did make a good point when I sent it to them. So I'm proud of the work that made up this one. :) So let me know what you think of the chapter please?<strong>


	6. Brown Feathers with Red Tips

**Chapter 6: Brown Feathers with Red Tips**

Locking my eyes to the ceiling above, the smile faded from my lips. Day one of dating him and he already lied to me? I couldn't help but feel betrayed. It was the beginning of the whole relationship ordeal, so who wouldn't feel that way? Then again, it was only day one. It wasn't like we were on the level of being able to say we knew everything about one another. I figured for sure that he'd come around to tell me what he was thinking.

I could feel eyes drifting closed while they rested on the boy's features. He lay next to me asleep, resting on his back; just being with him felt so calming that I couldn't help myself. Every time that I was with him, I was always letting myself fall under that same spell of his. Always falling a little harder for him into that hold that people would only call as love? Or maybe it was lust. I wasn't sure, maybe this was pure love. I didn't know. How could I? I was young and I knew that I didn't fully understand that emotion. But I figured that it was, I mean; the feeling that you never wanted to let someone go because you're with them and you just get this feeling that you're flying so high in the air that you can take on the whole world. If I was actually flying, Kiba would have to be my wings.

As my eyes had closed, I had pictured this. The image got more and more vivid. It was almost as if I was actually out there, in the sky, in the clouds.

I knew that I was dreaming, but I didn't want it to end just yet. I knew that Kiba was still right next to me, because in this dream, I had wings there to hold me.

I could look straight out and see nothing but the clouds under me and the beautiful morning sun in the distance. The sunrise made the sky a gorgeous orangish-pink color with the clouds as the foreground. Just watching those beautiful colors dance around in the sky was like watching an artist paint a million dollar piece right before your eyes. It was of such beauty that no one could ever truly put a price on it.

As I moved out toward the sun, the warm rays kissed my skin. It felt so wonderful that it just had to be real. I couldn't think of anything other than how beautiful the sight in front of me was. Those rays of light pierced the clouds around me, and lit my brown colored wings to show their beauty. On the tips of each of the hundreds of feathers on both of my wings were red, but only the tips. The light also lit up the angelic white silk clothes that covered my form, just a light tee to cover my torso, with long pants that felt a little too baggy as they covered the tops of my bare feet and hung behind my heels.

I stopped flapping those immaculate wings and raised my arms out to the side as I glided higher and higher into the air. It wasn't until I tried to flap those beautiful wings when I realized something. My wings felt heavier than usual all of a sudden and I could feel myself falling.

I tried my best to flap those beautiful brown and red wings of mine before I could feel the muscles in my back begin to flex and work together. Once again those wings lifted me into the air.

I tried to settle my nerves, thinking that it was just a simple mistake, one that anyone could make. But this was the same time that my wings gave out completely. I couldn't move them anymore. My body was falling toward the ground, spiraling around in its decline. I tried to scream, but no sound came from my lungs. The only noise I heard was that of the wind passing by while I was falling alone now.

"_What is going on? What's going to happen when I reach the end of these clouds?__"_I couldn't think. I couldn't picture anything that would happen. There were no words that I could think of that would be able to explain anything to me as to what in the world was going to happen.

I heard something. A faint whisper, it was so faint that I almost missed it. '_Naruto__,_' It called. That was strange. I could have sworn that someone had called out a name. But whose name was it? The wind was too strong that I couldn't make out the voice, or the name that it called.

It came again, but this time a little louder. But still nothing compared to the wind that was going through my ears. I could see green below now. Having been falling for what seemed like a good twenty minutes, I saw a wide grass ocean. One that looked like it would never end in one direction, while in the other was the sea.

I knew now that once I hit this ground, it would be over. That would be all for me.

As my body hurdled toward the ground I felt a warm touch. As if an angel had grabbed onto my wings and gave them the composure and strength to take flight once more. It felt as though the my wings themselves were taking it upon themselves to lift my form from the accelerated decent.

My wings spread and stuck out, their feathers fluttering harshly through the strong current of air that pushed them in all the wrong directions. My body was still in a crazy spiral but there was a stabilizing feeling there. It was as if someone was trying to hold me still. The wings started to flap on their own, but I knew that wouldn't be enough to save me from the decline. So I did the only thing I could think of, and commanded the muscles that were connected to those beautiful pieces of art to work with them and save me!

The wind blew strong one last time as my wings fluttered and angled themselves at fourty-five degrees to catch it. Not only were my wings strong on their own, they seemed smart too! The air caught under them and my body was yanked up roughly as I soared over the grass. Just an arm's length from it, I let my fingers run through the green sea below me.

It felt soft, as if it had been untouched by humans for all of its existence. Unpolluted from the smell, from the presence of those beings that destroyed everything they came into contact with. The beauty of this place seemed to go on forever, and it felt like nothing but freedom here.

Looking toward the horizon, I saw myself coming up to where the ocean of grass ended; there was a cliff drop off, and then the sea. Commanding these beautiful wings of mine to slow, I hovered above the stony edge of the cliff and looked down below. The drop-off was to a point, hanging over the water, it more so looked like the grass was floating than actually being a part of the world.

I landed, my bare feet touching down in the soft grass. The waves crashed against the bottom of the cliff, splashing up toward me I smiled as I could smell that saltwater breeze. I sat down and stuck my hand out, hoping to have some splash up against me.

It did. The next wave that hit splashed so high that I had to pull myself back from the cliff to not get soaked. I laughed and giggled. It was strange. I was sitting here playing around with the ocean, and I didn't have a care in the world. It felt like I had someone sitting here with me, someone sitting here protecting me. But there wasn't anyone next to me. It was just me, the ocean, the grass, and my wings.

Wait, why did I have to add the part there about my wings? I didn't know why I had thought that. It was like, these wings of mine were not a part of me, but were part of someone else. It was like these wings were someone else.

I looked down to myself to see a dark purplish color under the collar of my shirt. If I hadn't looked down to my lap, I would never have caught it out of the corner of my eye.

Pulling the collar out away from my skin, I ran my fingers over it. Sitting on the bone, my skin was a purplish yellow bruise. Where had the mark come from? Was that there the whole time? I questioned to myself before putting my hand to my neck in thought.

It felt, tender. My neck too? I started to look around for something, anything, which I could use to see a reflection. It wasn't until the ocean crashed against the stone walls below that I realized that I could use the water for a reflection.

Standing, I jumped quickly from the cliff down toward the water. My wings let out to my sides as I felt the wind catch under them and lift me once more into the air. My wings didn't flap now; they just let the wind blow under them as they glided me down to the water.

I came to a hover above the water's surface, looking down at it; I ran my fingers over the tender place on my neck. I tilted my head to the side to see the discoloration of the skin in the reflection; yeah it was the same as my collar.

Out of pure instinct, my hand reached out just for the tip of my middle finger to touch the surface of my reflection. With that single light touch, the small surface where I had touched turned cryonic froze. With a gasp, I pulled my hand back from it. But it gave me an idea nonetheless. It wasn't cold under my touch, so who's to say it would bother me?

My wings gathered their strength as I did a mid-air backflip and stopped myself just inches away from the surface of the ocean. I let go very slowly as to not fall into the water if my plan failed. But once the sole of my foot touched down to the water, the ocean froze. Not just that one little placement, but the entirety of the ocean was frozen in a cryonic state.

Both my bare feet were against the icy surface of the ocean now, and I saw standing atop what used to be water.

'_Naruto'_ there was a faint voice again. I heard the voice this time, and I looked in every direction. All I could see was the never-ending surface of ice that I stood upon. There was no one else around me.

"_What's Naruto?"_ I asked in my head. I couldn't tell whose voice it was. But they called that word again. I wasn't sure if it was a name, or if it was something else. But at this moment I could tell they meant it as a name. I didn't know how I knew. I just did.

"_Naruto, wake up kiddo._" It called out. I looked around again for good measure. If the person this voice was calling was asleep, why didn't they splash some water on them? I mean, there was water all around…wait, no that's not right. The ocean was now a frozen wasteland and that was my fault.

Shaking my head I flapped my wings to get me off the surface and into the air, but as those strong wings lifted me from the ground, I fell forward into the ice. With a cough from the sudden impact against the ice I placed my palms against it to see my reflection. There was nothing wrong physically with how I looked, so my eyes drifted toward those beautiful brown and red wings.

There was something wrong, they weren't my beautiful brown and red, they were just a dull brown color. There were no red tips, and there was no true beauty in them any longer. Looking at the realization on my face of how something so beautiful was now gone, I couldn't help the sad look I held. That feeling of having someone by my side had now gone, along with the strength of these large wings.

Where had the voice gone? I couldn't hear it, I looked in every direction. Was that voice the reason for the strength of my wings? I looked all around but I couldn't see anything aside from the ice. Wait. Nothing but the ice? But I could have sworn that there was grass under my feet a moment ago. There was a cliff somewhere wasn't there?

No, no there wasn't. I have been sitting here above the water all by myself before I touched down and froze it over. I didn't know why I felt like there had been grass under me. But that feeling lingered. It felt as if I didn't know my own memories now, and I couldn't help but the feeling of forgetting that lingered.

With a shattering bang, I turned around quickly and looked around. There was nothing, but at the same time, I knew something was out there. I couldn't see anything just yet. What was that, out there in the distance, don't you see it? Out to my right, there was what looked like a crack in the surface of the ice. The split sat there for a moment, but then it began to grow rapidly. It was a good 100 feet from me at least, but it was coming fast.

Trying to flap my wings again, I tried to lift myself from the surface but it didn't help. I didn't go up any more. I had to leg it, and with that in mind, I ran. I ran straight ahead as fast as I could. It came as a surprise to me that those now useless wings weren't heavy in the least. They didn't slow my pace, or at least they didn't hinder me running away from whatever it was that was under the surface of this icy ocean.

'_Where are you?'_ The voice had come again, but this voice was different. Colder now, it sent chills down my spine even when this frozen world was unable to. '_Where has Kurama left you?' _I heard. Kurama? Kurama. I knew that name. I knew it well. But who was Kurama? I wasn't sure. I didn't know why I was pondering this when I was running for my life from something that I couldn't even see.

'_What's going on? What happened?_' I heard the calm voice ask out this time.

"_My wings, they stopped working again! Again I can't fly! My wings have left me, and now I'm going to die! Something is chasing me, I don't know what it is, but I can't stop it without my wings!_" I called in my head as I knew my voice wouldn't work. I looked back over my shoulder, past my wing as I saw that the ice was still splitting; that spine chilling cracking noise that no one would ever want to hear while standing on ice.

'_Calm down, it's alright. Remember, your wings are always going to be here with you, they're never going to leave you._' I heard the reassuring voice; it was calmer, nicer even. I could feel the strength of my wings coming back as well as the color of that vibrant red. The wings flapped hair, lifting me from the surface and into the air above.

I was afraid that the strength of my wings would flee once more if the voice wasn't calling out. But it didn't seem to be true; in fact, it felt as though there was a presence with me. As though there was an angel wrapping their arms around me to protect me and hold me up.

The surface of the ice was beautiful, but at the same time, terrifying. The form under the surface was long, and from the red shadow that was lying against the surface of ice, I could tell that it held nine tails. Nine tails…

Naruto…

Kurama…

Kurama…

That was it! I knew what was going on finally! Smacking myself in the forehead, I smile and shook my head. "I see now." I said aloud, finding my voice with ease now.

The surface of the ice steamed. It was quickly fading into water once again from the rising temperature under it.

I couldn't help but feel cross about the situation as I folded my arms over my torso. Raising a brow and sighing I shook my head again, "Kurama get out here!" I yelled over the ice.

"_So you remembered my name? You remembered who I am? That's so misfortunate, because now I'm going to have to remove you from this world, and I so much enjoyed having you here. You are now, and forever, going to be erased from existence!_" I heard a deep, scratchy voice speak out. I could hear it coming from under the ice.

When I heard the voice, I already knew an attack was coming when one of the nine tails shattered the surface of the ice and barreled toward me as though it were going to pierce me through the chest. It came so quickly that I didn't have enough time to react. But it seemed that I didn't need to as my wings moved on their own yet again as they lifted me out of harm's way.

"_I'm always going to be here. I'm not going to let anything happen to you__,_" I heard. I found it funny, my wings saying such things. I knew they were always going to be there. They were attached to me. Besides, where would they go?

Again a tail shattered the melting surface and tried to break me. This time my wings didn't move me out of the way, they moved into the way. The red of those beautiful feathers, those priceless pieces of art, glowed that bright red color of a burning coal. I didn't feel the impact, but there was the sound of shattering glass; my form was pushed backward from the force, but I was unharmed.

As my wings unfolded from around me, I raised my head with pride in those beautiful works of art. They were a part of me, and they protected me. Not only that, they weren't just here in this world. They were in the real world waiting for me to wake up.

"This world is in my mind," I called out to the form under the ice, "and there isn't a damn thing that you can do that I will not be able to block or destroy!" It felt weird to speak to the demon that always plagued my mind, but it also felt right.

I heard a dark cackle from the beast, and a faint glowing purple light appeared where the head of the beast lay under the ice. My wings did nothing to protect me this time, because I was commanding them, I was in control.

The surface around his head shattered outward toward me as a large black ball pierced the air at high speeds, "_Block this then!_" Kurama's voice called out.

Pride was going to kill me one day, but it was not going to be this day! As my wings held me in the air, I raised my right hand above my head. 50 feet, 40, 30, 20… when I knew it to be ten feet from me, I swung my hand down.

With the back of my hand, I smashed the ball to pieces. With the sound of glass shattering, I watched the black shards falling, dissipating.

"_That's not possible!_" Kurama's voice echoed.

"You're a fool, trying to trap me in my own dreams. You're a right foul git, you know that?" I answered back as I placed my palm against my stomach. I remembered now as to what my father had taught me. Clenching my hand on my stomach, I smiled. "Hey Kurama." I called.

"_Hmm?_" He glared at me with intent to kill.

"I don't mean to be rude, but I really must go back to my real body, back to the real world." I said, and with that, I stuck my fingers to my stomach, and twisted toward the left.

I watched as Kurama's eyes grew wide. He knew that motion all too well, he moved to try and launch another attack, but just as he stuck his arm out, nine arches fell and grabbed hold of each of his tails. One in the middle of his back. One around his neck. And one on the arm that he reached out with.

He growled and snarled. Thrashing back and forth but not moving from his placement. I smirked. He knew it was futile. I did too. He couldn't break free of this, and we both knew it. But there was still a slight problem.

I wasn't back, and awake yet. I didn't know if sealing him like that was going to bring me back or not. But I tried, and it seemed that it wasn't going to help me get back. I turned back to face the sun.

It was getting bigger and brighter. I chuckled, so sealing him was the key? I let the light engulf me. Wrapping around my form like a warm blanket. I felt two fingers press against my forehead. I smiled to myself, I knew who that was. I knew what they were doing.

Opening my eyes, I cringed from the bright light of the morning that shown through my window before closing them again. The weight on my thighs was familiar and annoying now.

Prying my eyes open once again, I looked to Menma. He was smiling at me with his index and middle finger against my forehead. "Morning sleepy head," he said with a glance to my right. I turned to see Kiba passed out, his fingers intertwined with my own.

Looking back to my brother, I raised a brow. "Why are you sitting on me?" I questioned. He didn't say anything as he jerked his head to the left, toward the door before getting off me. I sighed and laid my right arm over my forehead in thought of the dream that I'd just awoken from. Was Kiba even awake for that whole thing, I wondered as I looked over to his sleeping form.

Releasing his fingers, I moved from the bed as quietly and a steadily as I could as not to wake him. Menma was standing outside of the door, his back resting against the wall with his arms crossed over his chest. When I got out of the room, I looked to him before walking past and down the stairs.

"You know we're going to need to go out today," he said quietly. I knew that of course. We always did when it came to Kurama trying to break free.

Padding through the house, I turned the corner at the bottom of the stairs to the kitchen. "I know, but can we do that later? I don't want Kiba around when we do it," I said quietly. The house was quiet, and smelled of fresh coffee.

The kitchen clock read seven-twenty-three. It was still too early for anyone to be awake on a weekend.

I rummaged through the cupboard that stood to the top left of the sink, where all the vitamins were held for anyone that was lacking in any of them. Grabbing the B12, iron, zinc, D3, and melatonin, along with a few others, I set them on the counter before reaching back in to pull out a pill bottle. It held my name on the label with the name Rasangan.

Pulling a single pill out, I tossed it back before grabbing a cup out of another cupboard and filling it with some apple juice to drink it down. I waited for a moment before putting most of the pills back. Leaving only the B12 and D3, I took out a pill from both and tossed them back as well before replacing the bottles in the cupboard.

"I figured you'd want to wait till he was gone," I heard Menma say from behind me as he fished around the pantry that sat to the left of the stove. On the other side was a hall that leads to the garage and the downstairs bathroom.

I leaned my rear against the counter as I crossed my arms and watched him. He was always the first one up, always being awake by no later than six-thirty, even on the weekend. He pulled out of the pantry with a box of hotcake mix. Turning to me, he raised it with a questioning gaze.

I just shrugged and turned to walk down the hall to his side, heading to the bathroom. This early in the morning I didn't care what was for breakfast, but I had the biggest urge to pee.

"Morning mom," I heard Menma say, and something came back as a groggy response. I guessed that the woman was looking for her coffee. I just shook my head as I closed the bathroom door behind me.

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><p><strong>Thank you once again, <em>Blindseer0 <em>for being such a wonderful beta. Don't worry, I don't find anything you say offensive or rude, I am glad that you criticize me in such a strict way!**


	7. Three Demons

**CHAPTER 7: Three Demons**

"So what do you want to do today, Naru?" Kiba asked, using the nickname that my mom always used for me.

"I actually don't think I'll be able to hang out today. Menma wants to take me somewhere; he said it was a surprise for me," I lied. I knew that we were going somewhere to be alone, so that we could deal with the issue that had presented itself earlier.

Kiba just nodded to me as he picked at his hotcakes. "Alright. I was just going to check and see," he said as he took another bite. It was just he and I that were sitting at the kitchen table now. Menma had gone up to his room, where he had just started unpacking his boxes. My mom had headed out to work once again.

It felt weird to think of Kiba as my boyfriend, but he said it last night that we were dating, so I wasn't going to argue. Of course he never officially asked me, nor I him, but apparently we were boyfriends.

"Kiba, what's wrong?" I asked as I looked to him, he was picking at the hotcakes, not actually eating them. He seemed a little distant to be honest.

"Huh?" Looking up at me, he raised a brow before looking down to his plate again. "Oh, it's nothing really. I was just thinking about school," he said with a chuckle. It didn't feel like he was lying, but it didn't feel like the whole truth either.

I didn't push though; I just let it pass over like nothing was wrong. I don't know why I didn't push it. I would usually get upset with the idea of someone lying to me. It actually made my blood boil, but that wasn't how it felt right now.

"Hey Naruto?" I looked up from my plate again to see that he wasn't actually looking at me. He was still looking down at his food. "Wanna come with me to walk Akamaru?" he asked as he looked up to at me. The question came as a slight surprise to me.

"Well I need to check when Menma is taking me out, but otherwise I'd love to go with you," I said with a grin. I stood from the table, scraping the leftovers that lay on my plate into the garbage before starting to wash the dishes that Menma had used this morning to make breakfast. He cooked, so I cleaned.

Kiba did the same with his leftovers before placing the dish into the now bubbly water. Afterward, he moved behind me to simply wrap his arms around my waist and rest his cheek against my shoulder. I leaned my cheek over to rest it against his hair as I washed and rinsed the dishes before setting them in the drying wrack.

"Naruto, are you keeping anything from me?" I heard the words softly spoken into my neck. Kiba's breath was warm and sent chills down my spine as he breathed against my neck.

I didn't think anything of the question, nor did I think hard on it before answering, "I'll tell you what; if you want to know anything at all just ask. I promise I'll tell you the truth when I answer," I told him. I didn't know for sure if I was going to regret saying that I, but now that I said it, I was bound to that promise.

"Okay then," he whispered before pulling away. As I was scrubbing a glass, he spun me around to face him. The suds that were on the cup spat at him and clung to his shirt; thankfully I didn't drop the cup. "Tell me what makes you have nightmares like the one you had last night."

I stopped scrubbing the glass before letting out a sigh. I tried to turn back to face the sink, but his grip on my shoulders wouldn't allow such a thing. He obviously wasn't going to let this one slide. I knew now that he was aware that I had that nightmare the night before, but how aware he was, I didn't know.

Biting my lip, I turned to face away for a second. I didn't know he was going to ask something like that. If I had, I wouldn't have made the promise. "Can we not talk about that just yet? I don't really want to tell you right now."

His hands slid down my arms to my elbows and held on for a moment before he smiled sweetly to me. "Of course. I don't want you to tell me anything if you're not comfortable with it," he told me, "and here's a promise from me to you. No matter what it is, I will be here for you, and I'll help you through all your demons." I chuckled at the words he used there. It was like he already knew that I held some sort of dark deity in me.

"Thanks Kiba," I said softly before turning to the sink again.

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About an hour had gone by since we finished breakfast, and the dishes. Kiba and I were busy walking toward his home, hand-in-hand. We didn't say anything as comfortable silence lingered between us, but as we turned the corner to where Kiba's home came into view, he turned to me slightly while we walked.

"Now, I'm gonna tell you not to worry about what's going to happen, but everyone always seems to freak out over it so I guess you're just going to have to deal," he told me.

I'll admit, hearing that, I was worried as hell as to what was going to happen.

"Umm what?" I questioned with a look forward toward his home. "Oh umm, I forgot something at home," I said as I pretended to try and pull my hand free from his.

He gripped me tighter, and it made me smile. "No way. You're stuck now, being with me, you gotta get the stamp of approval," he said. We were about two houses down from the large two story house.

I couldn't help raising a brow as to what he meant by that. I didn't know if I wanted to find out either. But he was right, I was stuck now; he was dragging me along too. As he was digging out his keys, I looked around the front of the house. I noticed that there was a dog shaped mailbox out by the street, with a red cloud painted on the side of it. It was weird to see such a painting on a dog.

There weren't any cars in the driveway, so I figured that his parents were out at this moment. That's when I realized something. As I watched Kiba open the door, I spoke up, "hey I just noticed. I don't know much about your family. But you know almost everything about mine." I said as I followed him in.

"That's true. Well I guess it's safe to tell you this. It's a huge secret though," he got close to me, whispering as if someone else could hear. "My mom is a…vet," he said as he regained his composure and stood up straight. I had gone and hoped she was like some secret agent or something with how he was reacting. But no, he just told me she was what, a vet?

"You had me all excited!" I growled at him before I pushed his shoulder lightly, "I was hoping your parents were like, secret agents or something!" I said eyeing him thoroughly.

He chuckled and winked before turning on his heel and walking toward what I could only assume was the kitchen. The house was the basic layout. The main room was to the left of the small hall that was connected to the front door. There were a set of stairs that stood right in front of the door, and a hall going passed them.

I followed Kiba passed the stairs, and into the kitchen. It held black marble countertops and a large island sitting in the middle of the large room. Stools sat on two sides of the island as it also held a sink in one corner. "Wow, I never knew you had such a nice house," I said as I looked around. The walls were a light brown color, and the cabinets were a deep crimson.

He laughed a little too heartedly at that. "Well I guess that's because you've never been in my house." He gave me that wolfish grin that he always held before I heard him whistle twice quickly.

Tilting my head, I heard a noise from the second floor before I heard padding on the stairs. I didn't know what was coming until I turned around and I was forced to the ground as some sort of large animal pushed me down. Covering my face I groaned at the feeling of one of its legs pushing into my stomach.

"Gah! Kiba what-what is this thing?!" I hollered as I tried to protect my face from the slobbery tongue that was assaulting me.

Kiba was laughing, laughing I tell you! "That's not a thing, it's Akamaru!" he laughed out before he pulled the animal off of me finally. I was finally able to breathe without having to worry about getting soaked from animal slobber.

As I lay on the ground, breathing rather profusely, I looked toward him as he was petting a large white dog. The animal was huge! "Geez, I thought he was gonna try to eat me or something," I said as I flipped over to my stomach and watched my boyfriend petting his dog. He just grinned at my words before shaking his head.

He stood and reached over to one of the countertops as he seemed to dig around somewhere I couldn't see. Akamaru sat down next to his master's leg, looking up at him as if he knew what was going to happen next. Of course, when Kiba pulled a somewhat large milkbone out, I realized the dog was getting a treat. So obviously the dog knew what was going on. "Akamaru is just a big loveable dog, he couldn't hurt a fly," he said with a chuckle before looking a little more serious, "unless you're trying to hurt someone he cares about. Then watch out."

He finally grabbed a black leash that was sitting on the counter, I guessed next to the treats, and started to hook the dog up with it. "You coming or what?" he asked looking to me as I still lay on the floor.

Grumbling a little, I pushed up so I could stand.

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When I finally returned home, it was near eleven o'clock in the morning. "Did you have fun on your little dog walk?" I heard behind me. I didn't even jump as I knew Menma was probably sitting on the couch waiting for me to return anyway.

"It was pretty nice actually. That animal was huge though. I never thought he'd have such a big dog." Turning on my heel, I walked backward toward the kitchen. "So are you ready to get this over with?"

Menma turned from the TV to look at me properly now, he seemed almost apologetic. If I were anyone else, I'd assume that he was. But I knew better than that. He was sadistic enough that he enjoyed what we were about to do; so audacious that I sometimes didn't even think of him as my brother.

He twisted his shoulder around as to loosen the muscles that held tight to his bones, making sure they were relaxed. It was only natural because this was going to be one hell of a workout for both of us. We had a ritual every time I fell into one of those dreams that I had like the night before, the ones where Kurama had taken control and made such night terrors.

He said nothing as he grabbed his car keys from the coffee table. He was parked behind me, so we had to take his car. He was wearing an army green shirt that had the sleeves cut off, and black jeans. His OP skater shoes were ratty and torn. His raven black hair was sticking out just like mine, and his blue eyes were the same as well. In truth, we were identical twins; he just dyed his hair black so our family could tell the difference. He hated that they got him mixed up with a demon child.

We locked the house and finally got into his car. I said nothing, I just rolled down the window and put my elbow on the door and rested my cheek in the palm of my hand. We pulled out of the drive to the street before taking off toward the park that I knew was around the corner that Kiba and I had just been to. Of course I was terrified of Kiba coming out and seeing the actions we were about to take. But I knew that we had to do such things.

I guess it's safe to tell you now that I am not a normal child. I actually have a demon locked away inside of me. We don't get along. He tries to take over both my mind and body so he can cause a ruckus all over before he lets me take back over, and take the blame. It's not like I can say that it wasn't me! But anyway, Menma and I always have a ritual of when he almost breaks through again. It's a way that wears him out so he has to recuperate in order to attempt once again.

I take a medicine that was developed specifically for me, it's meant to increase the time he had to recuperate for. The medicine usually helped me keep control for three weeks at most.

Menma pulled over the curb and into the grass. Pulling up to where he can park a good ten feet from the street, he got out. I did as well when I finally noticed that we had stopped.

As I closed the door to the vehicle, I looked around to make sure no one was around. "So tell me lil Naru, what was the dream like?" I heard my brother ask. His voice was sour, as if he hated talking about the dreams I had.

"It was actually rather beautiful this time," I said nonchalantly with a shrug. "I was flying through the open sky, then above a grassy field like this," I motioned to the open field that we stood in, "then I was over an ocean that crystalized when I touched the surface."

He chuckled and nodded. "He actually made something nice for you? That's a shocker," he said before his eyes became cold. "Don't get too cozy, you freak."

The words that he spoke made me go rigid. People called me a freak before, but I never got mad because they didn't know better. Menma knew what I was, and he could always say the right things to upset me. The muscles in my neck twitched, sending my head to the side slightly.

Taking a deep breath, I tried to remember that my brother didn't mean anything he was saying. I knew that he wasn't trying to make me feel—"You're the reason father left ya know. You're the reason for it all. He was too freaked out by having a demon spawn that he couldn't even live with us anymore. You even scare mom, she's always trying to keep calm in front of you so you won't blow up on her." His words dug into me, ripping my heartstrings apart.

My blood circulated faster and faster as I could feel my body numb and my reflexes seemed to heighten. I felt the sting in my chest where I knew that the words were digging into me. My vision began to blur slightly, and my brain was pounding against my skull. It hurt, my head was killing me, it hurt so badly.

"Gah!" I screamed as my hands clenched my head, my fingers digging into my hair almost pulling the stands out. It felt as though my entire being was being pushed back. Like I was becoming a spectator to my own life.

I was still able to see, but it was such a blur at the moment that I couldn't make out my brother's form any more. The words he spoke were fading in and out, and the body that my mind was once in seemed to calm now. In truth, I knew what was going on. But it hurt and scared me every time.

"So the real beast finally comes out to play huh?" I heard Menma's voice coming back into focus. There came no reply though. My vision was still a blur, and it felt like I wasn't even there. My nerves were no longer attached to my brain; at least that's how it felt to me.

As my vision was beginning to focus finally, I could begin to make out the twin form of myself. The dark hair was an obvious sign that it was my brother. I felt a small wave of relief wash over my existence. But I knew I wasn't in the green yet.

A snarl came through my body and a shiver went down the spine. My legs spread apart slightly, and my arms dipped toward the ground a little. It was a rugged stance, one that the demon always took. Any onlooker would simply assume that it was a feral way of fighting, and they'd be right. It was like an animal had taken over my body.

In a split second my body moved on its own accord, well really on Kurama's demand. With all the speed my body could muster, it lunged forward with my hand outstretched. The takeover was aiming for my brother's neck, aiming to rip his throat out for sure. But Menma stepped to the right, my left, and allowed me to fall past him.

A playful smack came to the back of my head. I personally couldn't feel it as my nerves weren't attached to my consciousness, but I could tell the blood in my veins boiled at the playfulness of my brother. Kurama hated him, and being toyed with was something that was sure to piss any demon off.

My right leg swung backward toward my brother, and I noticed the slight jar in my body's vision. Kurama hit something. I wasn't sure if my brother was hurt now or if I was. Kurama placed my right hand on the ground and spun my body away from my twin.

Feet back on the ground, he rushed toward Menma. As I had hoped, Menma was alright. He didn't even seem phased from the attacks. But I could tell there was worry in his eyes. He was worried about me, about hurting me.

The next attack that went to him was a punch toward the face. But he still moved freely out of the way. I wasn't surprised that he was able to dodge it. But with the speed of the attacks from Kurama, he had to have a lot of skill to be able to dodge the attacks through augur alone. But then again, the demon's fighting style was so unskilled that I myself could have predicted it. Menma and I both knew that the longer the fight went on, the less rudimentary his style would become.

After the miss, Kurama spun around again to face Menma. The look I received from my brother wasn't that of worry anymore. It was more so that of anger and what seemed to be regret. I knew that he didn't really care to fight me when I wasn't in control of myself, because it didn't seem fair to him.

With an open hand, the demon lunged at my brother's face, but my twin easily dodged to my right. However my left hand struck out and grasped his throat. Complete fear took over my consciousness as Kurama had gotten ahold of Menma.

Seeing my hand squeeze slightly around his throat, I was worried as my brother seemed to be in some pain from the grip. I was about to attempt to take my body back, despite how difficult I knew it would be, but I didn't as I watched my brother's arm come up and gripped my wrist.

With a twist, he wrangled my arm around my form holding it behind me. He pushed my body forward and Kurama stumbled. Twisting around, a snarl came from the demon inside of me. Menma just smirked. His features were nothing but rough, looking as though he were just some cocky street rat that thought he could win the fight.

Swing after swing, Menma dodged, blocked, and countered. But with each attack, Kurama was getting closer and closer to actually hitting him. He was getting faster and faster with each swing, and his punches were getting stronger.

Within twenty minutes of being there, and attacking nonstop, one connected with my brother's jaw. I heard the crack and the smack of fist to skin. My brother spun on his feet, falling to the ground. I had to do something, anything, I wasn't about to let my brother take the beating of his life.

"Naruto? What are you doing out here?" I heard faintly. My form stopped, hand outstretched toward my brother's throat. The voice was too faint; I couldn't tell whose it was. But I knew better than anyone that there was now, another piece to be removed from the board.

My head snapped to the side, looking over toward a tree that stood at the edge of the park. Standing there were two people. But my vision was too much of a blur to make out who it was that stood there. But by the look of things, there were two people.

So then Kurama had two new play things it seemed…

Standing upright, the demon takeover smiled, "Oh hey, I'm just roughhousing with my brother," he said before walking toward the two.

"_Don't just stand there! RUN!_" I screamed inside my own mind. Of course I knew that no one could hear me. But it didn't stop me from trying.

As the two started to come into view, I noticed that they were actually walking toward me now. "Oh? Well I hope it's alright if we interrupt then. I wanted to introduce you to my girlfriend, Yugito," the male voice said as I could tell he gestured toward the other.

The two of them were becoming clear in my vision from the back of my mind. "Oh Yagura, don't be silly. He and I have already met," she said with a wave and an outstretched hand. "It's good to see you again Naruto," she said with a giggle.

Kurama took her hand for a shake. "Yes we have," He said with a chuckle with a sideways glance toward Yagura, "Didn't I tell you that Yagura?" he asked.

The two newcomers chuckled, and my mind raked over everyone I had met since I came here. Yugito, that name didn't ring any bells. I hadn't met her before, and I knew that she knew that. So what was she playing at?

Before my thoughts could be completely processed in my head, I watched as Kurama reached for Yagura's face with obvious intent to harm. But his hand was caught by the woman who stood next to him. "I'm sorry, Naruto. But this may hurt," she said with a sweet smile.

"Yugito, Naruto can't respond just yet. He's not in control," Yagura said as he smiled to his girlfriend. The two of them swung their fists into my body and Kurama keeled over, gasping for air.

Three spun around and placed a forceful kick in my gut before sending my form flying back a good few feet. He didn't say anything as my body lay there groaning from the sudden pain. It had caught both Kurama and my own existence by surprise that they knew that it wasn't me in control. How could these two possibly know what was going on?

"Naruto, I know you can hear us. So sorry about all of this," Yugito said before my form sprang up to its feet.

She ran toward me, swinging a hand downward, Kurama stepped back to dodge. Before he could retaliate though, Yagura jumped over the girl, placing a hand on the middle of her back, he swung his leg out.

The foot connected with my side, and pushed me a little ways. I was truly surprised that these two were able to put up this much of a fight for Kurama. Surprised, and overjoyed. The only one to ever seem to be able to subdue the demon inside of me was Menma. Speaking of which…

My head snapped forward and my body fell. Catching itself with my hands on the ground, my head shook off the sudden dizziness that came with that last hit.

Kurama growled, looking back to see Menma standing there with a smirk, my form stood once more. The heat that was growing in my chest set my mind on fire. I could tell now that the demon fox was serious, deadly serious now. I was now more scared than ever for the three that were standing around me.

With his eyes shifting all around, watching all three of them, he was able to respond to the smallest twitch.

That being said, when Yugito had moved to swing at me again, Kurama stepped to the side. He was able to augur the next attack. Just as Yagura had done before, he jumped over his girlfriend and placed a hand on the middle of her back. However, unlike before, Kurama had ducked down and swung a leg toward the girl's arms that held her steady.

With losing her grip on the ground, she and Yagura had both toppled over.

Rising from the ground just a little, my leg was in full swing toward Three's head. But before he could connect, my body was pulled backward and a well-aimed fist connected with the middle of my spine. The electrical connections to my brain failed for just a second, and my body toppled over.

Everything went black.

**Everyone! I must thank you all for your support and your help with this story! Of course, no author would be able to be anywhere without the support of his/her/their readers. So I thank you all so much for this! I'm sorry this took so long, but I just couldn't find the right way to write it, and I refuse to write it as sloppy as I did the first time! But everyone please say thank you to my Beta as well, whom without, I would probably be just confusing everyone again. **_**Blindseer0**_** I thank you again for your help.**


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